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This is the Memorial House of Mother Teresa and it’s in Skopje because this is where she was born in 1910, when the city was still part of the Ottoman Empire. She was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and spent her early life here before leaving as a young woman to join the Sisters of Loreto. The memorial stands close to the site of the church where she was baptised, linking it to her childhood and religious beginnings. The church fell down in the 1963 earthquake but it has since been replaced by a more modern building, on which more in a later post.

As for the design of this building, it was meant to represent a typical residential house, although it all looks to me a little out of place. There’s an odd circular staircase to get to the museum and I’m entirely sure why that couldn’t have been on the ground floor, although they’ve made the gift shop the priority and I suspect that’s the actual reason.

This is the small museum which is free of charge to enter and which is meant to commemorate Mother Teresa’s life.

Other than for copies of numerous documents (they were marked as copies to be fair, but it would have been nice to have a few original documents from somewhere), I can’t note that there’s a great deal actually here. I understand that her finger was sent by the Pope to reside in the chapel here, although that’s not entirely what I wanted from a museum.

A photo of the young Mother Teresa from 1926.

And a handy biography of Mother Teresa, but I’m not sure that I learned a great deal about her work from this museum set-up. I’m also a little unsure of the whole Mother Teresa story as I have a great deal of sympathy towards the late Christopher Hitchens and he effectively labelled her as something of a fraud. It appears that as often things are much more complex than that, but she did appear to believe in redemptive suffering which isn’t perhaps entirely ideal when operating hospices and hospitals.

Anyway, it was an interesting way to spend a few minutes and it’s well reviewed with a large number of people suggesting that they found it inspirational, and who am I to deny religious fervous?

After an hour spent hiking around a fortress, more on which later, I decided that I’d have a traditional Macedonian dish of tacos and beer at the local Mexican restaurant. Well, perhaps not entirely traditional, unless there is a little-known chapter of Balkan culinary history that I have yet to uncover. I remain open to evidence though if that means trying more food.

The main menu with a broad selection of dishes. My usual Mexican dish of fajitas was only listed on the menu as being for two people and I didn’t want to appear greedy by ordering that. Although I did privately wonder why they supplied five tortillas if it was for two people.

And the drinks menu. The decor was slightly polished and urban, with everything feeling clean and organised.

Guacamole and the local Skopsko lager to start with, a beer that was clean, crisp and refreshing in this extreme heat. I’m not sure that there was a great deal of subtlety to the beer, but sometimes just something cold is sufficient.

And the main of grilled chicken tacos with a Paulaner Weissbier, one of German’s better beer styles in my humble opinion. The chicken was tender, the portion size was generous and there was a depth of flavour to the whole arrangement.

I would have done with being even closer to the air conditioning, but I eventually down in what I considered to be dangerously high temperatures and would define as a hostile operating environment for me. But, away from temperature based comments, the server was helpful and efficient, with the prices being reasonable for what appears to be quite an on-trend restaurant. The crowd seemed to be generally younger and there were locals and tourists all in the mix, with the atmosphere feeling suitably laid-back and welcoming.

This is a roof tile, but not just any roof tile, this is from the 1873 railway station that was built in Skopje. It was demolished in 1937 to make way for the new central railway station, although that’s now mostly fallen down due to the earthquake in 1963. During the demolition of the city’s first railway station, it was suggested that two tiles and two bricks were taken as some sort of memory of Skopje’s early railway history. One of them is displayed here and I like that things such as this survive, it’s a little survivor of the arrival of the railways into the city.

This is what the city’s first railway station looked like, opened in 1873 when the Ottomans opened the line from Skopje to Thessaloniki in Greece. I’m not sure that the First Balkan War between 1912 and 1913 is much referenced in the history taught in UK schools (which seems to mostly be Tudors to trenches with a few mentions of steam engines, but there we go), but this is when the Ottoman Empire lose most of their European lands, include the city of Skopje.

There seem to be a lot of these firebugs around Skopje, giving the initial appearance (to me at least) of ladybirds but they’re not closely related although these firebugs have apparently started to make their way into the UK (when I say these firebugs, I mean the general species, not these actual ones which seemed quite happy on their Skopje pavement). The Latin name is Pyrrhocoris apterus, I hadn’t realised that pyrrhos meant flame, so the English translation is the ‘flame coloured bug which is wingless’. I’ve also discovered that ladybirds are beetles and firebugs are bugs although I’m not sure how I’m going to translate that new knowledge into the wider world but I’ll try and find the appropriate social occasion.

A few years ago, a restaurant on the main square of any city, Macedonia Square in this case, would have had a reasonable chance of being something of a tourist trap. Fortunately, social media and online reviews have made that nearly impossible, and as this tempting little number advertised craft beer and was positively reviewed, that was lunch sorted.

I was offered the chance to sit outside, but I didn’t want that stress and anyway, there’s a tree inside so that is like the same. Just with fewer insects and less bright sunshine.

I ordered the tasting board and I must admit to becoming a little muddled up, but I think that they were all brewed by the Donkey by Temov Brewery. One the server said was a pilsner, but it didn’t taste of a pilsner, one seemed to be an APA and another an IPA, but that didn’t match the beer options on Untappd. Anyway, they were very lovely and that’s going to be the limit of my beer analysis on this occasion.

The basic burger seemed to me to be the most suitable option in the heat and it met my expectations in terms of the taste, temperature and presentation. The tomato in the burger might not be visible in the photo but that packed some taste, much better than the tasteless little numbers so often sold in UK supermarkets.

The service was attentive and polite, with the air conditioning being on point and definitely delighting me. With extreme temperatures outside of 31°C (88°F), I very much needed that. The whole arrangement cost £11 for the four beers and the burger which all felt entirely reasonable. The highlights for me were the beer, the tomato and the air conditioning, which might not be the most decadent trinity of items, but they were very welcome on a hot day in North Macedonia.

Skopje’s Old Bazaar is one of the oldest and largest marketplaces in the Balkans, with trading activity recorded in the area from at least the twelfth century. It developed most strongly under Ottoman rule, when Skopje became an important commercial centre and the bazaar filled with mosques, inns, shops and hammams. It’s been a bit bruised and dented by the 1555 earthquake, the 1689 fire and 1963 earthquake, but it’s all still there. I’m not sure that it felt entirely historic when walking around, but it was heavily reconstructed after the 1963 earthquake and I’ll meander around some more of it today. Anyway, some photos….

There was a large earthquake which destroyed this building, then used as the central railway station, on 26 July 1963. There were substantial offers of help from around the world following the disaster, which had killed over 1,000 people and left 200,000 people homeless, with 80% of the city centre destroyed.

I quite like exhibits like this, a tangible reminder of the help that was offered by others. This is a mobile kitchen provided by the German Red Cross that was used in the Taftalidze district where residential buildings were being rapidly constructed. In the meantime, people were living in tents and this would have been heavily used to keeping people fed. There must have been some excitement about the grand urban vision being created here, but food matters more in the short-term.

And a nice sticker because even amid destruction there should be a bit of branding. Civilisation might be partly shelter and partly food, but it’s important that everyone knows who bought the ladle….

Just photos, but this Macedonia Square in the evening, looking rather beautiful. Also visible is the Stone Bridge and there’s been a river crossing here since Roman times. All rather lovely.

This is Skopje’s former railway station which was built between 1938 and 1940 and was designed by the Serbian architect Velimir Gavrilović. At 05:17 on 26 July 1963, an earthquake struck Skopje which killed over 1,070 people, injured thousands more and destroyed about 80 percent of the city. The clock on the facade of the railway station stopped at the exact moment the tremor struck.

This is what it looks like now, the left hand side of the station has gone, the central section is mostly standing and the right hand side has been turned into a museum. More on that in future posts.

A photograph from the time shows the damage and this scene isn’t recognisable today other than the surviving bit of the railway station, as there’s now a large shopping centre where the railway line once was. That’s a little symbolic of the city perhaps, there needs to be a significant overhaul of the current central railway station, a brutalist designed building that needs repair, but the new Diamond shopping centre is quite decadent and evidently expensive to have built.

It was decided to keep this damaged section, now in the garden of the museum, as a memorial. There’s a sharp bluntness about keeping a broken building, it’s quite powerful.

It was interesting to see how it was constructed and a little sub-optimal that it lasted under 25 years. It had been constructed on the site of the city’s first main railway station that opened in 1873, but more on that later as well. Such excitement stored up and my two loyal blog readers can pace themselves accordingly.

The remaining arches can be seen from the rear. It’s nice that there’s a little museum here for free, although that’s more about the city’s history, but there is a video playing inside which gives more information about the earthquake and the massive damage that it did to the city.