Churchill and Lincoln to Adorn Skopje Skyline

The new Foreign Ministry in Skopje | Photo by: Balkan Insight

Macedonia will honour 60 world statesmen by putting statues of them on top of the new seven-storey foreign ministry building that is set for completion by the end of the year.

“The planned sculptures of world politicians will be 2.5 to 3 meters tall, and the outside of the building will also have capitols, tympanums as well as sculptures representing Macedonian folk garments,” Vasil Donevski, the head of the Macedonian government’s acquirement bureau, says.

The bureau is commissioning the work for the building’s construction.

The new home of Macedonian diplomacy is part of the controversial “Skopje 2014” project, the government’s grandiose bid to refurbish Skopje’s dull central area with art and architecture drawing inspiration from the time of Classical Antiquity.

Donevski was unwilling to disclose other names of statesmen whose images will be erected on top of the ministry. The overall aim was to add dignity to the normal work of the ministry, he explained.

At the moment, the ministry is split into several separate buildings and for some of its offices it has to pay rent. The ministry thus has to honour official guests in modest settings.

This will change once the government finishes the new ministry building, costed at 13.5 million euros. The external decorations, including the busts of the statesmen, are costed at an additional 1.8 million euros.

The daily newspaper Utrinski Vesnik writes that with the latest contingent of 60 sculptures, Skopje is sure to break some world records. The daily has counted at least 133 new sculptures as part of the Skopje 2014 project that are either erected already or are planned for the near future.

Some 29 sculptures of famous Macedonian painters, writers, singers and actors are envisaged for the newly designed Bridge of Art in the centre of the city. Another 29 Roman and Byzantine dignitaries are going to decorate another new bridge, called simply "The eye". Both bridges are under construction.

Some 20 tall bronze and marble statues of national heroes are already planted or envisaged in and around the central Macedonia square alongside many others that have more contemporary or abstract motifs.
 
The tallest addition by far to the city centre is the recently erected 24-metre-high equestrian statue of Alexander the Great.

However, the authorities recently announced that Alexander’s father, Philip will soon get an even taller statue, again in the centre of the city.