GARE DE SKOPJE

This impressive railway and bus station (Железничка Станица/Železnička Stanica) is the centerpiece of the reconstruction plan that followed the 1963 earthquake. Completed in 1981 and designed in a Brutalist style by the chief architect, the Japanese Kenzo Tange (1913-2005), it is set on a 1,400 m-long, 10.5 m-high bridge with ten railroad tracks. This symbol of Skopje's renaissance required 11,000 t of iron - more than the Eiffel Tower - and 70,000^m3 of concrete. See also "Getting around".