Main square · Warrior on a Horse, 2011
The main square at the end of the Stone Bridge, with the Warrior on a Horse fountain of 2011 and the statues of the Skopje 2014 project.
These are the stories you can open in the 3D view, each at its own numbered point on the model.
Macedonia Square is the main square of Skopje, on the south bank of the Vardar where the Stone Bridge lands. It was laid out between 1920 and 1940 and in Yugoslav times was called Marshal Tito Square. Independence from Yugoslavia was declared here. Today it holds the New Year festivities and most public events. It was rebuilt under the Skopje 2014 project.
The official name of the monument is Warrior on a Horse; it is widely seen as Alexander the Great. The bronze rider, sword raised on a rearing horse, is about 12 metres tall and stands on a column of about 10 metres. It is the work of the sculptor Valentina Stevanovska, was cast at the Marinelli foundry in Florence and was unveiled on 8 September 2011, the twentieth anniversary of the independence referendum.
The column rises from a round basin about 23 metres across, ringed by water jets. Its light marble is carved with reliefs and crossed by dark bands. At the top a broad round crown carries a bronze star and a band of rosettes on its underside, and water falls from its edge like a curtain. The fountain has its own lights for the evening. Cost estimates for the monument differ, from about 5.3 to 9.4 million euros.
The monument stood at the centre of the long naming dispute between the country and Greece. The Prespa Agreement of 2018 settled the dispute. Under it, a plaque at the monument now states that the figure belongs to Hellenic civilisation. The official name, Warrior on a Horse, was kept.
Most of the statues round the square belong to Skopje 2014, a government project announced in 2010: about twenty new buildings and more than forty monuments in the centre, many with neoclassical or baroque facades. Here stand, among others, Goce Delčev and Dame Gruev on horseback by the bridge, Justinian I and Tsar Samuel. The project was politically controversial; cost estimates range from 80 to more than 500 million euros.
From the square the Stone Bridge crosses the Vardar to the Old Bazaar on the north bank. It is about 214 metres long and 6 metres wide, built of travertine blocks, and it is the symbol of the city and its coat of arms. Its date is debated: archaeology points to the sixth century, written sources to Sultan Mehmed II, between 1451 and 1469. Kale, the fortress, stands on the hill beyond.
To the south the long, wooded ridge of Mount Vodno closes the view. On its highest point, Krstovar at 1,066 metres, stands the Millennium Cross, 66 metres of steel lattice, built in 2002 and lit at night. A cable car runs up from Sredno Vodno. Macedonia Street leads south from the square towards the Mother Teresa memorial house and the Old Railway Station.
Typical prices are our estimates for orientation, not menu prices. Check opening hours on the spot.
Walk around the model, switch between day and night, and hear each story read aloud in English, Macedonian or Turkish.
Open in 3D
