North Macedonia: Охрид and Скопје

I spent four days in North Macedonia to finish my OAT tour. Now I’m back in Greece, on the island of Naxos, to finish my trip with some quiet and solitude. 

The North Macedonia portion of the trip consisted of two nights in Охрид (Ohrid) and two nights in the capital, Скопје (Skopje). (I’m done with the Cyrillic now.) We also made a few stops in between.

Since I’ve mostly been letting my photos do the talking on this trip, I’ll let you skip to my photo album if you want. I’m just going to write about the highlights

Ohrid

Ohrid sits on the shore of Lake Ohrid, which straddles the border between North Macedonia and Albania. Even though I’d never heard of Ohrid before taking this trip, the city and the lake have a few claims to fame:

• Ohrid once had 365 churches, one for every day of the year. 
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of only 40 such sites that are recognized by UNESCO as both a natural and a cultural site.
• Ohrid had the first and oldest discontinued university in Europe, founded by Saint Clement in the 9th century.
• The Renaissance might have begun in Ohrid.
• It is a delightful place to visit

Okay, this last one might not actually be a claim to fame, and the one before that is probably not entirely accurate, but I’ll get back to that.

Bay of Bones

After we arrived in Ohrid, we immediately got on a boat and rode about a half hour to the Bay of Bones. This is an interesting but odd museum.

In 1997 archaeologists discovered underwater remains of a settlement from the late Bronze Age in a cove on the south shore of Lake Ohrid. About 6,000 wooden piles were discovered, plus fragmented and complete ceramic vessels, stone and flint objects, and a multitude of fragments of animal bones that were fashioned into tools. Surprisingly, no iron and almost no bronze was found.

Based on this evidence, in 2007–2008 they reconstructed a portion of the settlement with new materials. A wooden platform sits on pilings in the cove, and huts of wood and adobe sit on the platform. Since they used nails to reconstruct everything, it’s in no way authentic. In fact, everything built there is based on pure speculation. No one knows what the settlement actually looked like. The only descriptions we have are from Herodotus, who can only have heard about the settlement from locals, since he lived at least two hundred years after it was abandoned. He wrote that the inhabitants kept their animals on the wooden platform, which makes it most likely they had goats and not cattle.

Anyway, it was interesting to look at and imagine what life might have been like for the people who lived there, but I didn’t really get much of a sense of connection to history.

It was a nice boat ride on a pretty lake.

Church of Saint Mary Perybleptos

The next morning we had a walking tour of Ohrid. It’s a highly picturesque city, but for me the highlight was the Church of Holy Mother of God Perybleptos.

The outside wasn’t the main attraction, though. It was all about the incredible frescoes. We couldn’t take photos inside, but I found some on a website.

This work dates from the late 13th century. It predates Giotto’s Lamentation on the wall of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, by about ten years. Compare:

Giotto’s work is generally considered to have paved the way for the Florentine Renaissance, breaking the mold of Byzantine art by introducing naturalism and depth into his paintings. But don’t you think the Ohrid fresco also accomplishes much of this? I’ll grant that Giotto’s work looks more natural. But look at the emotion on their faces. I think the Ohrid fresco surpasses Giotto in this regard. Do you agree?

This style of painting didn’t go far in the Byzantine Empire, and even less so under the Ottomans. But I have to wonder if any Italian painters visited Ohrid and saw these frescoes?

Whether or not the Renaissance began in Ohrid, the frescoes in this church are remarkable for their beauty, the use of color, and the dramatic depiction of the stories they tell. 

Church of Saint John the Theologian at Kaneo

We didn’t go inside this 13th-century church, but it sure packed a punch from the outside.

It also packed a punch for National Geographic in 2005:

There are lots of other images from Ohrid in my album, including some beautiful sunsets over the lake and some folk dancing videos.

The Colorful Mosque

On our drive from Ohrid to Skopje, we stopped in Tetovo to visit The Colorful Mosque.

Built in 1438, this mosque is famous for its painted exterior and interior. These date from the 19th century. They do not depict any specific living thing, since such depictions are not allowed in mosques. The flowers are all generic, non-specific decorations.

There are depictions of cities in the ceiling, and on one wall facing toward Mecca is a painting of that city:

Matka Canyon

Our next stop was this very picturesque canyon not far outside Skopje. We had lunch there and then went on a boat ride to a small cave. I would have rather done some hiking or rowing or paddle-boating, but it was, as I said, very picturesque. And the cave was lit dramatically, so that was cool too.

Skopje

Walking around Skopje made me smile.

It’s kind of a funny-looking city. My first impression was that it didn’t know what it wanted to be. It’s a mishmash. An old castle, a Turkish Bazaar with medieval buildings, classical architecture alongside Communist era brutalism, and among all of it is the most bizarre collection of statues, many of them ridiculously oversized.

Much of the incongruity of this city is the result of a 1963 earthquake and a project called Skopje 2014. The earthquake destroyed 80% of the city. Skopje 2014 recreated it in ways that were highly controversial at the time and still cause people like me to chuckle.

Here’s how the BBC described it in 2014:

As Macedonia scrabbled around for identity in the wake of Yugoslavia’s disintegration, a group of historians, architects and politicians decided that the country should remind itself — and the world — of a proud past.

The banks of the Vardar River, which runs through the city centre, now boast new museums, government buildings and a reconstructed National Theatre. All of them have been built in a style its proponents label either neoclassical or baroque, in striking contrast to the modernist character of most of Skopje.

Then there are the statues. Dozens of bronze-cast figures have sprouted up seemingly everywhere. Just on the newly-constructed Art Bridge across the Vardar, there are no fewer than 29 of them, representing significant Macedonian figures in music, literature and visual arts.

Elsewhere in the city, everyone from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great to Mother Teresa has a monument to remind visitors and residents alike that though Macedonia may be small, it has produced great people.

But the piece de resistance is in Macedonia Square. A gigantic warrior on a horse now dominates this previously empty plaza. The figure — which may or may not be Alexander the Great, depending on whom one asks — perches on top of a thick column, surrounded by lions. Music, lights and dancing fountains provide the icing on the cake.

The whole effect is certainly nothing less than eyebrow-raising. And for some people it is positively stomach-churning. But in raising the profile of the city, Skopje 2014 has achieved the desired effect.

You can see that Warrior on a Horse (or Alexander) at the top of the page. And you can get a good sense of the mishmash in my photo album. If you haven’t gotten through it all yet, now’s your chance.