Skopje, city of cultural heritage

The railway station in Skopje was built in 1873, when railway traffic was introduced in Macedonia. In order to improve railway traffic, the Bank Administration decided to build a new railway station in Skopje. The foundation stones were laid in 1937, and the construction lasted 3 years. It is the work of the architect Velimir Gavrilović. It had a capacity of 24 trains per day and another 14 local ones. The railway station was put into operation in 1940 and was the most beautiful in the Balkans at that time. The large station hall, which was a connection to the main entrance and exit, occupied an area of ​​1,000 square meters. There was a restaurant on the first floor, and office rooms and a hotel for the railway clerks on the second floor. The offices were located in the wings of the building.
The Feudal Tower or Beg’s Tower was built in the 17th century. It belongs to a special type of residential architecture that simultaneously served as a defensive building. Around the nekošaj tower were fields where peasants worked. There is no information about who lived in it, but they had an interesting system for sending messages. They sent them down the tubes. 14 meters high with a square base. Due to its defensive character, the lower zone has fewer windows and a special type of rifle openings. Only on the top floor are there slightly protruding wooden balconies, the so-called tapestry. For heating the tower, two fireplaces were made located in the walls of the first and second floors. The third floor was warmed by the chimneys that passed through it. The first and second floors are led by stone stairs that are connected to the walls, and the third floor is climbed by wooden stairs. In the 20th century, the tower was owned by the Kuleli family. Some say that the tower was also home to the famous Zorba.
The Ristic Palace is a protected cultural asset. It was built in 1925, a project of the architect Dragutin Maslac. On both sides of the central part of the facade, a pair of statues of Asclepion and Hygia in ancient clothes in almost life size and the emblem of the Town Hall in the middle dominate, which in 1928 were placed on the first Skopje postcard. Below the statuettes, two snakes are shown fighting, with their mouths wide open and facing each other. The entire facade is decorated with ornaments from the plant world, geometric shapes, human figures and figures from the animal world. Above the ground floor, a female figure in relief is represented in rosettes, reminiscent of one of the gorgons, mythological monsters. Above the third floor, which is the finished part of the building, are a decorated balconies, profiled posts, and above them, on the edge, two flower pots, which together give the illusion of a “balcony with flower pots.” The figures with the initials of Vladislav Ristic, a pharmacist, were made by the decorator Danilo Stojkovic.
The clock tower was built between 1566 and 1572. It was the first clock tower on the territory of the Ottoman state. Its lower walled part is, in fact, a remnant of one of the four towers in the composition of the ramparts that protected the monastery “St. Gjorgi Gorgos Skoropostijnik”. In the arson of the city and the great fire of 1689, the tower suffered great damage, but it remained in its original shape until 1904, when it was remodelled and got its present shape by order of the wali Hafiz Pasha. During the 1963 earthquake, the clock tower was heavily damaged and the clock mechanism was lost. The new clocks on the tower were added on May 26, 2008, as part of its reconstruction. 105 steps lead from the bottom to the top of the tower, where the clocks are placed. At the very top of the dome, you can see an arrow left over from the skirmishes in former wartimes.
The aqueduct in the Skopje settlement of Vizbegovo, a cultural heritage from the 6th century, has been declared a monument of particular importance with the highest level of protection. It is believed that the Aqueduct dates from the time of the Roman Empire or Byzantium in the time of Justinian I, from 527 – 554, so this aqueduct is also called Justinian’s Aqueduct. The aqueduct is one of the most significant sights and heritage of Skopje. With its length of 385 meters, it is unique in Macedonia and one of the three preserved aqueducts in the area of ​​former Yugoslavia, besides the one at Bar in Montenegro and Diocletian’s aqueduct near Split.
Husein-Shakhova Mosque, located at the very entrance to the village of Saraj, has the status of a protected immovable cultural property of Macedonia. It began to be built in 1553 and was completed in 1566. According to the inscription above the entrance to the mosque, the building was completed when Husayn-shah was already deceased. The mosque complex consists of a mosque, a turbe, graves of Turkish dignitaries, a fountain and other administrative buildings. It is known that in the past there was also a madrasah, which today has been demolished and is no longer there.