Streets squares and districts to visit Northern Macedonia

This 18,000 m² square (Плоштад Македонија/Ploštad Makedonija) forms the center of the city. It is marked by the presence of numerous kitsch monuments erected as part of the "Skopje 2014" project. The most imposing is the Horse Warrior monument, as tall as an eight-storey building. Installed in 2011, this 14.5 m-high bronze statue stands on a 10 m-high stone and bronze column at the center of a musical fountain surrounded by eight water-spitting bronze lions. Made in Italy, it depicts Alexander the Great riding Bucephalus. It was designed by local artist Valentina Stefanovska, responsible for several of the city's most recent monuments, including the Macedonian Gate. Initially named after Alexander the Great, the statue was renamed following protests from the Greek government. However, this is not the first time the square has been adorned with a horseman. Under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, two equestrian statues of Kings Peter ^I of Serbia and Alexander ^I of Yugoslavia guarded the entrance to the stone bridge. These were destroyed by the Bulgarian occupiers in 1941. The square itself has changed name and appearance several times over the last century. For a long time, it was known as Burmali Square, in reference to the ^15th-century mosque that stood there until the 1920s. It was renamed in honor of Marshal Tito in 1945, then Independence Square in 1991, before taking on its current name in 2004.

This downtown district takes its name (Чаршија) from the former Ottoman sharia where businesses, mosques and the Muslim population were once concentrated. It extends along the pedestrian street of St. Clement of Ohrid (Sveti Kliment Ohridski). Very pleasant, this south-north axis in soft slope constitutes at the same time the favorite place of walk of the inhabitants and a haven of shopping for the tourists. The Ali-Pasha mosque, the clock tower, the Zeynelabidin-Pasha tekké, the municipal market and the pleasant Kruševska-Republika square are all located here.

The banks of the river that runs through the whole of Skopje are well equipped for walking in the city center. Both banks have a pier with a bicycle path. They are also connected by various bridges and footbridges. One notices especially the constructions of the project "Skopje 2014", in particular the "Bridge of Civilizations", very kitsch with its 28 statues of Greek, Bulgarian or Serbian characters. Even more kitschy are the three fake sailboats (and concrete) "moored" on the western bank. One of them houses the hotel-restaurant Senigallia.

The old Ottoman quarter of the charchia or "Old Bazaar" (Стара Чаршија/Stara Čaršija) retains many shops, a market and a few cafés and restaurants. It's pleasant to stroll through this 12-hectare labyrinth of alleyways. Here you'll find the Hadji-Mahmut-Bey mosque, former Ottoman baths and the La Havra synagogue. Founded in the ^16th century, Bitola's charchia reached its apogee in the ^18th century. It was then much larger than it is today, attracting merchants from all over the Empire, as well as from Vienna, Venice and Marseille.

This 1 km-long pedestrian street (Широк Сокак) is Bitola's main thoroughfare. It links Dragor to the north and City Park to the south. Renamed in honor of Serbian King Peter ^I, then Marshal Tito during the Yugoslav period, it has taken on its Ottoman-era name, which blends Slavic širok ("wide") and Turkish sokak ("street"). It is bordered by around a hundred listed ^19th-century houses, numerous shops, cafés and restaurants, as well as several monuments. It is also home to six of the ten consulates still present in Bitola.

Located at 570 m above sea level, this tourist area (Средно Водно) is home to the departure station of the cable car that reaches the top of Mount Vodno and the tourist area of Krstovar. There is also a pleasant park here, picnic areas, cafes-restaurants, souvenir sellers and the Vodno Hotel, which has been closed since 2019. The views are already beautiful, but that's nothing compared to what awaits you at the top. Please note: there is a parking fee on weekends via an app.

Perched at 1 300 m above sea level, 7 km southwest of Vevčani, Gorna Belica (Bella di Supra en aroumain) is a former alpine village of vlachs shepherds. Today uninhabited, it has become a resort for the inhabitants of Struga, who come here looking for freshness in summer. Gorna Belica has the church Saint-Clement of Ohrid (Свети Климент Охридски), the first church arriving in the village. It dates back to the ninth s. and would have been the residence of the saint before it finally settled on the shores of the lake. Higher, the church Sainte-Petka (Света Петка or Paraškjevija in aroumain) dates back to the beginning of the s. It is typical of the vlachs architecture with its iconostasis decorated with floral motifs and its carved wooden eagle. 

With its cobblestone streets, mosques, and caravanserais, the historic "Old Sharia" district (Стара Чаршија/Stara Čaršija, Çarshia e Vjetër) is Skopje's most pleasant. Often referred to as the "old bazaar" or "Old Bazaar" in English, it occupies a large part of the eastern bank. Mostly populated by Albanians and Turks, it has many small shops, a large open-air market and most of the city's old Ottoman buildings. It is a charchia. This term comes from the Turkish çarşı, itself derived from the Persian chaharsu meaning "crossroads". It refers to an urban complex comprising one or more mosques, buildings managed by Islamic foundations, and businesses, part of the profits of which paid for the staff and maintenance of public and religious buildings. A sharia is therefore much more than a simple "bazaar". In this case, it is the largest and best preserved of the Balkans. It was created by the Ottomans from 1392, then modified and enlarged during five centuries. The location was not chosen at random, since there was an emporio here, a Byzantine trading post active since at least the ^12th century. Although the district withstood the 1963 earthquake better than the modern city, it was largely reduced in the 1960s and 1970s by the construction of the Goce-Delčev (south), Krste-Petkov-Misirkov (east) and Nikola-Karev (north) boulevards.

This tourist area (Крстовар, pronounced "krastovar") has the most beautiful views of the Skopje region. It is located at the top of Mount Vodno, around the highest point, Krstovar peak, at 1,066 m above sea level. The latter bears the name "Place of the Cross" since the Ottoman period. It now houses the Millennium Cross, the AEK tower, the arrival station of the Millennium Cross cable car, the Dare-Džambaz guesthouse, cafes and restaurants, a playground and picnic tables. It is also a popular site for mountaineers and the starting and ending point of many hiking trails, one of which allows you to reach the Matka canyon in about 3 hours. By the way, since 2018, passes here, in March, the Vodno-Matka marathon (vodnomatka.mk), which starts from the tourist area of Sdreno Vodno. It is not quite a marathon, since the course is "only" 40.6 km. But it is still a dreaded race because of its 2 680 m of difference in altitude. Since the construction of the cable car in 2011, the Krstovar peak can be enjoyed with much less effort. Many Skopians come here even in the middle of winter, when the summit is covered with snow and the thermometer shows -20°C. The view from here is breathtaking, not only of the Skopje agglomeration, but also of the Mokra Planina ("wet mountain" to the south, 2,540 m) and the Skopska Crna Gora (to the northeast, on the Serbian border, 1,651 m).

This pedestrian square (Плоштад Слобода) forms the center of Štip. It took its present form in the 1970s and is not conspicuous for its beauty. It concentrates administrative buildings, including the post office, cafes, fast food and some shops. Nearby are two landmark buildings: the bezistan (30 m to the northwest) and the clock tower (120 m to the north). Both are accessible through passages through the buildings. To the south, towards the Otinja, the square is adorned with a rather ugly statue of Alexander the Great (2010).

This 4,000^m2 pedestrian square (Плоштад Нова Југославија/Ploštad Nova Jugoslavija) is the center of the city. Despite a project to rename it in 2015, it retains its name inherited from socialist Yugoslavia. Here you can find the pleasant Art Paris brewery, the two-towered building of the House of Crafts (1930) or the statue of Batko Gjorgija (2006), a great figure of local folklore. Just to the southeast is the second city esplanade, Maršal-Tito Square.

This small pedestrian square (Градски Плоштад/Gradski Ploštad, Sheshi i Qytetit) forms the center of Gostivar with numerous shops, cafés and restaurants in the surrounding area. It is dominated by the white bell tower of the main Orthodox church, Mother of God, built between 1924 and 1929. Opposite begins JNA ("Yugoslav People's Army") Street, which leads to the A 2 road. To the north of the square is a shopping center and, to the south, the small City Park.

This square (Плоштад Скендербег/Ploštad Skenderbeg, Sheshi i Skënderbeut) is located above Goce-Delčev Boulevard and marks the entrance to the predominantly Albanian-populated Stara Čaršija neighborhood. Since 2006, it has been adorned with a 7-meter-high equestrian statue of the Albanian hero Skanderbeg, who fought the Ottomans in the ^15th century. As part of the "Skopje 2014" project, the square was also equipped with a mural depicting great figures of Albanian history, an open-air theater and a statue of Skanderbeg's army.

This square (Плоштад Скендербег/Ploštad Skenderbeg, Sheshi Skënderbeu) consists mainly of two small parks in the city center. Since 2003, it has been adorned by a massive 3.5 m-high statue of Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg (1405-1468), financed by the Albanian diaspora in the USA. The Albanian hero's family ruled Debar before the city was taken by the Ottomans in 1395. Also on the square is a small monument commemorating the Albanian victims of the Kosovo war (1998-1999).

This square (Плоштад Карпошово Востание, Ploštad Karpošovo Vostanie) is an obligatory passage when taking the stone bridge to visit Skopje's eastern shore. Left empty after the 1963 earthquake, it is now occupied by a series of ugly and kitschy monuments created as part of the "Skopje 2014" project. It was supposed to be named after Alexander the Great's father, King Philip II of Macedonia. But due to protests from Greece, it was renamed after the local uprising in October 1689 against the Ottomans led by the Bulgarian Petar Karpoš. At the far end of the square is the Warrior 's Monument, a 15 meter high statue of Phillip II on a 13 meter high pedestal. In the center stands the fountain of the Mothers of Macedonia with four statues evoking Olympias, wife of Philip II and mother of Alexander. Two other fountains adorn the square, while the stone bridge is guarded by statues of the insurgents Gjorgji Pulevski (1817-1895) and Petar Karpoš (c. 1655-1689), and then by those of the Slavic evangelizing saints Cyril and Methodius, on one side, and Clement and Naum of Ohrid, on the other. Finally, the square is bordered by the Museum of Macedonian Struggle, the Holocaust Museum, the Church of St. Demetrios, the buildings of the Nikolovski Faculty of Music and the Nikolovski School of Dance (1960s-1970s), the curved Ibni-Pajko building (1938), the Stone Bridge Hotel and the National Archaeological Museum.

This street is about 500 m long (Улица Македонија/Ulica Makedonja) and is the main pedestrian axis of Skopje's western bank. It connects Macedonia Square to the City Museum in the south. There are cafes, restaurants and stores as well as the Mother Teresa House and the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen. Created in 1911 and almost entirely pedestrianized since 2004, it was named after Sultan Hamid V, the Bulgarian kings Ferdinand ^I and Boris III, the Serbian king Peter ^I and Yugoslav president Tito, before becoming the "Street of Macedonia" in 1991.

This neighborhood (Дебар Мало) is one of the most pleasant on the western side of Skopje. Described as a "bohemian" or "little Montmartre" neighborhood, it concentrates many restaurants. Despite the earthquake of 1963, it retains buildings and villas from the 1920s-1930s. It is at this period that it took its name of "Debar district", mainly populated by Macedonians from the region of Debar, in the west of the country. The most lively places are the streets Aminta-Treti (or Leninova, from north to south) and Orce-Nikolov (from east to west) and the pedestrian street Gjorgji-Peškov.

This 600^m2 square (Плоштад Магнолија/Ploštad Magnolija) features an 8.5 m-high equestrian statue of Philip II of Macedonia dating from 2011 and a fountain representing the "Vergina sun" found in the king's tomb in Greek Macedonia. The square owes its name to the Magnolija building constructed in the 1860s to house the Austro-Hungarian consulate. Located at no. 37 Širok-Sokak Street, it now houses the Russian Consulate and the Bure bar. Opposite, at no. 28, note the beautiful corbelled building from the same period.

At an altitude of 1,230 m, this site (Полетна Платформа Поглед/Poletna Platforma Pogled) offers a beautiful panorama of the Ohrid region. It is used by several paragliding agencies offering tandem jumps, including Paragliding Ohrid (paraglidingohrid.com) and Tandem Paragliding in Macedonia (facebook.com/tandem.flights.mk). It can be reached via an asphalt road from Velestovo, which continues for 12 km to the Asan Dzura hut at 1,480 m altitude.

This approximately 1.3-hectare pedestrian esplanade (Плоштад Методија Андонов-Ченто/Ploštad Metodija Andonov-Čento) forms Prilep's central square. Here you'll find the tourist office kiosk, located along Goce-Delčev Boulevard, as well as numerous stores, cafés and restaurants with terraces. To the east, the square is bordered by the small Ottoman quarter of the Old Bazaar, itself home to shops of all kinds, and beyond which stand the Clock Tower and the ruins of the Sharia Mosque. The square is named after Prilep politician Metodija Andonov-Čento (1902-1957), who died in prison for his anti-Yugoslav stance. It is home to a statue in his honor, as well as two other recent monuments representing Serbian prince Marko Mrnjavčević (c. 1335-1395) and Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gorče Petrov (1865-1921). The square continues south along the pedestrian street named in honor of partisan Metodija Šatorov-Šarlo (1897-1944) to the Prilep River (Прилепска Река/Prilepska Reka), a tributary of the Crna Reka. To the north, beyond Goce-Delčev Boulevard, lies the small Metodija-Andonov-Čento municipal park (approx. 1 ha). This is adorned with a recent statue of Alexander the Great, here wearing a sarissa, the long spear that equipped Macedonian phalanxes. Bordered on the north by the town hall building, the park also features a fountain and a monument to Kruševo pop singer Toše Proeski (1981-2007).