Macedonia's Alexander Statue Confirmed

The Vreme newspaper on Monday said that the arrival of the giant 22-meter-tall monument on the square has been confirmed by government sources.

Vladimir Todorovic, the mayor of Skopje's central municipality, which is the official carrier of the project financed by state money, stated for the same newspaper that the statue “will arrive next year”, and that “only the construction of the pedestal will last six months”.

The erection of the monument has been highly controversial due to its estimated high cost, the manner in which the government for the statue was carried out, as well as its potential impact on relations with Greece, already strained due to the 18-year-long row over Macedonia's name. The origin of Alexander the Great is at the heart of the dispute.

The statue is part of the so called “antique-isation” process that started a few years ago with the renaming of Skopje's airport to Alexander the Great and the north-south highway after his father Philip of Macedon.

By re-naming the airport, Greece claims Skopje broke a mutual agreement whereby Athens would lift its objection to Macedonia becoming a member of international organisations under the condition that the country would enter them under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, fYROM.

Greece has since blocked Macedonia from entering NATO and last week stopped EU member states from offering Skopje a start date for EU accession negotiations pending an agreement on the issue.

Some local observers have warned that Skopje's behavior will only harm Macedonia’s interests since the Western world predominantly sees these two historic characters as Greek.

Athens says the erection of statues from the antiquity and naming of roads and sporting halls after heroes from that era is an act of provocation and an attempt to steal Greek history.

The statue of Alexander the Great that will show the ancient warrior king riding his horse Bucephalus will be 12 metres tall. Together with the 10 metre high pedestal on which it will be placed, the whole statue will reach 22 metres.

The bronze artwork is being cast in Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli, a well known foundry located in Florence, Italy, and is estimated to be worth some 5 million euros.

Skopje's central municipality has repeatedly avoided going into details of the monument plans, and had given only vague estimates of its cost.