Skopje, north-macedonia

Skopje sits on the Vardar River beneath Skopje Fortress (Kale), whose walls have watched over the city since at least the 6th century. On the fortress's north bank, the Ottoman-era Old Bazaar (Stara Čaršija) is one of the largest and oldest in the Balkans, its stone lanes still lined with craft workshops, mosques and teahouses; the 15th-century Stone Bridge crosses the Vardar from the bazaar directly into Macedonia Square, the city's modern civic centre. That square, along with much of the riverside, was transformed after 2010 by the Skopje 2014 project — an ambitious and widely debated wave of neoclassical facades, museums and statues, dominated by a towering equestrian monument of Alexander the Great. Skopje was devastated by a major earthquake in 1963 that destroyed much of the historic centre; the rebuilt city, planned in part by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, is a striking mix of Brutalist reconstruction and the later Skopje 2014 additions. The city is also the birthplace of Mother Teresa, born here in 1910, commemorated by a memorial house near Macedonia Square. Above the city, a cable car climbs Vodno mountain to the Millennium Cross, a large illuminated cross visible across Skopje, while Matka Canyon — a reservoir lake ringed by cliffs and medieval monasteries, a short drive from the centre — is the city's most popular day trip for hiking, kayaking and cave exploring.