The best museums Skopje

Located above the Vardar River, past the Skopje fortress, this national museum (Музеј на Современа Уметност Скопје/Muzej na Sovremena Umetnost Skopje, Muzeu i Artit Bashkëkohor nga Shkupi) was established in 1970. It houses one of the most important contemporary art collections in the Balkans. It was founded after the 1963 earthquake, thanks to an appeal for donations launched by Jean-Paul Sartre and other European intellectuals. A total of 3,000 works were donated by artists and cultural foundations from 60 countries. As a result, the museum presents a fairly comprehensive panorama of the creative output of the 1960s-1970s, much of it European. The building itself is very attractive. Designed by a collective of Polish architects and renovated in 2014, it offers beautiful views over the Vardar and Skopje's western shore. In a vast, immaculate 5,000^m2 space, works by such great names as Pierre Soulages, Niki de Saint Phalle, Kristo, Fernand Léger, David Hockney and Bernard Buffet are on display. Creations from the former Yugoslavia are in the majority, with many works by artists from what is now North Macedonia. Among them are the very fine works of Jordan Grabuloski, creator of the Makedonium de Kruševo. But the main piece is the painting Tête de femme (1963) donated by Pablo Picasso. It is not on display, but can be shown on request. The museum also organizes temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

This former hammam (Даут-Пашин Амам/Daut-Pašin Amam, Hamami i Daut Pashës) was one of the largest in the Ottoman Empire. It houses the National Gallery of Macedonia (Национална галерија на Македонија/Национална Галерија на Македонија, Galeria Kombëtare e Maqedonisë), founded here in 1948. The building was erected around 1480 on the initiative of the Ottoman governor of Rumelia Davud Pasha, who later served as grand vizier of the Empire from 1482 to 1497. Like the hammam Čifte, it had two parts one for men and the other for women. The ensemble is surmounted by two domes, which each covered a hot room, and eleven domes above the rest of the facilities. The interior retains some ornaments such as carved stalactites or floral reliefs. It houses nine rooms where some of the most valuable paintings of the country are gathered. In room 1 there is a collection of icons from the ^14th to the ^17th century. Among them, note the movingVirgin of Lesnovo (^14th century) and the Annunciation (^16th century) which incorporates elements of Italian art, while the Holy Spirit is represented by a kind of black beam typical of the Serbian-Byzantine style. This is followed by room 2 dedicated to the "Macedonian Renaissance" (^19th-20th centuries), and then a large space dedicated to contemporary art (rooms 3-9) with works by the great painters Nikola Martinoski (1903-1973) and Petar Mazev (1927-1993). The garden is decorated with statues and sculptures.

The Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia (Меморијален Центар на Холокаустот на Евреите од Македонија/Memorijalen Centar na Holokaustot na Evreite od Makedonija, Qendra Memoriale të Holokaustit të Hebrenjve nga Maqedonisë) is located on the site of Evresko Maalo, the former Jewish quarter of Skopje that disappeared in the 1963 earthquake. Created as part of the "Skopje 2014" project, it is installed in a rather ugly gray building. The exhibition recalls the long tradition of local Jewish culture and its brutal end with the deportation of 7,143 Jews from the territory of present-day North Macedonia to the Treblinka death camp in 1943. Today, there are only about 100 Jews left in the country. The Jewish presence in the region dates back to antiquity, but the vast majority of Jews in the Balkans (from Sarajevo to Thessaloniki via Skopje, Štip and Bitola) are descendants of the Sephardim expelled from Spain in 1492 and welcomed here by the Ottomans. At the entrance, the name of the museum is written in Ladino (a language with Castilian vocabulary and Hebrew syntax): Sentro Memorial del Holokausto de los Djudios de la Makedonia. On two levels, the memorial exhibits a cattle car that was used for the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants, portraits and documents of the period, in the form of paintings or interactive screens. The purpose of this place is not only to remember this community, but also to propose bases for reflection for today's multicultural society.

This national museum founded in 1926 (Природонаучен Музеј на Република Македонија/Prirodonaučen Muzej na Republika Makedonija) has been housed since 1969 in an austere five-storey concrete building at the entrance to City Park and along Ilinden Boulevard. A rich collection of the country's geology, fossils, flora and fauna. The hundreds of naturalized animal and insect specimens are well presented. English translations, however, are a rarity here.

Located in Stara Čaršija, between the Mustafa-Pacha mosque and the Kuršumli caravanserai, this museum (Музеј на Република Северна Македонија/Muzej na Republika Severna Makedonija, Muzeu i Republikës së Maqedonisë së Veriut) is the largest in the country. Founded in 1924, it has been housed since 1976 in a vast concrete building with cubic forms that advance in terraces. Designed by architects Kiril Muratovski (b. 1930) and Mimoza Nestorova-Tomić (b. 1929), it boasts 6,000^m2 of exhibition space divided between three sections of ethnology, archaeology and art history. However, it suffers from a dated presentation and, above all, from competition from the National Archaeological Museum. Part of the archaeology collection has been transferred to the latter. In the process, 130 objects have disappeared, probably stolen. The ethnology section includes some sixty traditional costumes from all regions of the country. Note in particular this wedding dress from Mariovo, in the south. It weighs 40 kg and comes with a wig that the bride had to wear for a month after the ceremony, as a symbol of her virginity. Photos and models show the different architectural styles of traditional housing, as well as pottery and fishing activities.

Goddess Menada and Virgin Pelagonitisa. The archaeology section covers a broad period from the ^6th millennium BC to the ^7th century AD. It contains Neolithic votive statuettes, pottery from various periods and the famous Illyrian statuette of the goddess Menada (^6th century BC) from Tetovo. Also on display are the statue of the "Modest" Venus from the site of the ancient Scupi and some of the very rare Byzantine terracotta icons from Vinica (near Kočani). The art history section focuses on Christian art from the ^10th to the ^19th century, with the country's second-richest collection of painted icons, after that of Ohrid. The masterpiece comes from the monastery of Zrze (near Prilep). It is the icon of the "Pelagonian Mother of God" (Bogorodica Pelagonitisa), executed in 1422. The infant Christ appears without a halo, almost "disarticulated", in an astonishing position, as if performing a rotational movement, placing his head against that of his mother and caressing her face with his left hand. The section also includes copies of Byzantine church frescoes.

This museum (Музеј на Македонски Народен Театар/Muzej na Makedonski Naroden Teatar) is located, opposite the so-called "Theater Bridge" footbridge and next to the Macedonian Wrestling Museum, in the National Theater built in 2013 as part of the "Skopje 2014" project. This is a kitsch replica of the 1906 theater destroyed by the 1963 earthquake. Costumes, sets, photographs, paintings, personal effects of actors and directors, etc., are all on display.

Founded in 1999, this museum (Нумизматички Музеј/Numizmatički Muzej) is housed in the headquarters of the National Bank of Northern Macedonia, in a futuristic 1960s tower. It houses a collection of 22,000 coins, medals, exagia solidi (Byzantine monetary weights), seals and banknotes from antiquity to the present day. Around a thousand of the country's coins are on display. Among these, the oldest are Peonian drachms minted in the ^4th century BC. Buses: 3а, 3b, 7b, 22 and 41, "Kompleks Banki 1" stop.

Surrounded by stores, this caravanserai in Stara Čaršija (Сули Ан/Suli An, Hani i Sulit) is hardly visible from the outside. Located just north of the hammam Čifte (another entrance to the east via Bitpazarska Street), it was established around 1460 by Governor Isa-Bey Ishaković. Its name comes from the Turkish word sulu, meaning a damp place. The building stands above the Serava River, which was covered over during the Ottoman period. Restored after the 1963 earthquake, it looks like a classic caravanserai: a courtyard used to store goods and 57 rooms for merchants on two levels. Since 1982, the first floor has housed part of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Saints Cyril and Methodius University, with an exhibition. The first floor is occupied by the Stara Čaršija Museum (Музеј на Старата Скопска Чаршија/Muzej na Starata Skopska Čaršija, Muzeu i Çarshisë së Vjetër të Shkupit). Established in 1983, it is part of the Skopje City Museum. Covering 350^m2, it includes an archaeology section displaying objects dating from the ^10th to the ^20th century, found in the charchia and the fortress. The ethnology section focuses on the ancient crafts of the charchia: goldsmiths, tinsmiths, coppersmiths and leatherworkers. An opportunity to discover old tools and beautiful pieces of hammered copper. The museum also includes a history section (plans and documents) and an art gallery (paintings by ^20th-century local artists).

This small municipal museum reopened in 2018 (Музеј на Илегалните Работилници за Време на НОВ/Muzej na Ilegalnite Rabotilnici za Vreme na NOV) is housed beneath the tower of the Constitutional Court (same building as the Archaeological Museum), in the cellar of a house razed to the ground in 1965. It was here that the local partisan detachment manufactured weapons and explosives during the Occupation, from 1941 to 1944. Presentation of weapons and manufacturing techniques.

This museum (Музеј на Македонската Борба/Muzej na Makedonskata Borba, Muzeu i Luftës Maqedonase) was created in 2011 as part of the "Skopje 2014" project. Installed in a pseudo-neoclassical (and kitsch) building, it presents in a very subjective way the different movements that led to the independence of the country since the ^18th century. The whole is done through 50 paintings made by a Russian artist and 120 wax figures, all almost without any historical object.

This museum (Археолошки Музеј на Република Северна Македонија/Arheološki Muzej na Republika Severna Makedonija, Muzeu Arkeologjik i Republikës së Maqedonisë së Veriut) was created in 2014 as part of the "Skopje 2014" project. It is located along the Vardar, opposite the "Bridge of Civilizations" footbridge, in a grandiloquent, somewhat ridiculous building with Greek pseudo-columns and a glass façade. It's the country's second-largest museum, after the North Macedonian Museum in Stara Čaršija. Despite its apparent modernity, the presentation is a failure. Explanations are sparse, written too small and placed in showcases far from the visitor. Natural light is absent, replaced by overabundant lighting. Reconstructions, wax statues and contemporary paintings blur the understanding of the real objects. Yet the collections are rich. They cover the period from the Neolithic to the late Middle Ages, in four areas: numismatics (to the right of reception), lapidarium (to the left), and a vast chronological exhibition on the two upper floors. Some of the highlights include gold jewelry from the Hellenistic period, glass amphorae found intact in a Roman tomb at the Zajas site (near Gostivar), domed coins from the Byzantine period, filigree jewelry from the Classical period, and red pottery from the Bronze Age.

Located just south of Macedonia Street, this museum (Музеј на Град Скопје/Muzej na Grad Skopje) is moving: since 1970, it has been housed in the former railway station dating from 1940 and heavily damaged by the earthquake of July 26, 1963. On the façade, the hands of the large clock remained frozen at 5:17 a.m., the hour when the main tremor (6.1 on the Richter scale) destroyed a large part of the city, killing 1,070 people. Alas, this museum, founded in 1949, suffers from funding problems. Works and objects are poorly presented, and the museum is sometimes closed without notice. It does, however, house an important collection of works on the history of the conurbation: archaeology, history, art history, ethnography, architecture and design. The archaeology department is particularly rich. One of its highlights is the astonishing fragment of a Neolithic statuette of the "Adam of Govrlevo" in a seated position, with his phallus still erect after 7,000 years. The permanent exhibition on town planning features the major project to rebuild the city after the 1963 earthquake. The rooms devoted to ethnology showcase the country's minorities, with beautiful Albanian, Roma, Aromanian, Serbian and Jewish costumes. In addition, the museum has several branches on the eastern bank, including the Partisan Underground Workshop Museum and the Stara Čaršija exhibition at the Suli Caravanserai.