Skopje (/ˈskɒpji, -jeɪ/ SKOP-yee, -⁠
yay, US also /ˈskoʊp-/ SKOHP;[4] Macedonian: Скопје [ˈskɔpjɛ] ( listen); Albanian: Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North
Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre.
The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; remains
of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern
city centre. Originally a Paeonian city, Scupi became the capital of Dardania in the second
century BC. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans and
became a military camp.[5][6] When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western
halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of
the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian
Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992.
From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire, and acted as its capital city from 1346 to
1371. In 1392, Skopje was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who called it Üsküb (‫)اسکوب‬.[a] The
town stayed under Ottoman control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of
the pashasanjak of Üsküp and later the Vilayet of Kosovo. In 1912, it was annexed by
the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars.[7] During the First World War the city was seized
by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and, after the war, it became part of the newly formed Kingdom of
Yugoslavia as the capital of Vardarska Banovina. In the Second World War the city was again
captured by Bulgaria and in 1945 became the capital of SR Macedonia, a federated state within
the Yugoslavia.[8] The city developed rapidly, but this was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a
disastrous earthquake.
Skopje is on the upper course of the Vardar River, and is on a major north–south Balkan route
between Belgrade and Athens. It is a centre for metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile,
leather, and printing industries. Industrial development of the city has been accompanied by
development of the trade, logistics, and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of
transportation, culture and sport. According to the last official census from 2021, Skopje had a
population of 422,540 inhabitants in its urban area and 526,502 in ten municipalities that form the
city and, beside Skopje, include many other less urbanized and rural settlements some of which
are 20 km (12 mi) away from the city itself or even border the neighbouring Kosovo.[2][failed verification]
Name[edit]
See also: Other names of Skopje
Serbian troops overseeing the city's renaming from "Üsküb" to "Skoplje" following Serbia's annexation
of Vardar Macedonia in 1912
The name of the city comes from Scupi, which was the name of an early Paeonian[9] settlement
(later the capital of Dardania and subsequently a Roman colony) nearby. The meaning of that
name is unknown,[10][11] but there is a hypothesis that it derives from the Greek ἐπίσκοπος, (lit.
"watcher, observer"), referring to its position on a high place, from which the whole place could
be observed.[12]
After Antiquity, Scupi was occupied by various people and consequently its name was translated
several times in several languages. Thus Scupi became "Skopje",[13] and later "Üsküb" (Ottoman
Turkish: ‫ )اسكوب‬for the Turks. This name was adapted in Western languages in "Uskub" or
"Uskup", and these two appellations were used in the Western world until 1912. Some Western
sources also cite "Scopia" and "Skopia".[14] Scopia is in fact the name of the city
in Aromanian.[15] Nowadays, the local Albanian population call the city "Shkup" and "Shkupi", the
latter being the definite form.[16] This name has evolved from the ancient name Scupi in
agreement with the Albanian phonetic system, the basis of evidence of an earlier Albanian
settlement in the area.[17][18]
When Vardar Macedonia was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, the city officially
became "Skoplje" (Serbian Cyrillic: Скопље) and this name was adopted by many languages. To
reflect local pronunciation, the city's name was eventually spelled as "Skopje"
(Macedonian: Скопје) after the Second World War, when standard Macedonian became the
official language of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia.
Geography