Republished from: BIRN | Vasko Magleshov, Skopje
Marble blocks have started falling from the big fountain in central Skopje that holds the centrepiece of the entire project, theequestrian statue of Alexander the Great.
Photo: Vasko Magleshov
Eleven years since it was unveiled with a price tag that has since exceeded €700 million, some of the monuments that formed part of the “Skopje 2014” revamp are already crumbling.
Marred by controversy from the start, partly because of its steep price, and partly for its dubious artistic choice, drawing inspiration from Classical antiquity, the brainchild project of former PM Nikola Gruevski was originally promoted as giving a brand-new look to the shabby-looking City of Skopje.
During the hey day of construction, between 2011 and 2017, when the former government collapsed, critics pinpointed the project’s poor choice of materials and questionable artistic quality as some of its many flaws.
Now, with many of the completed buildings, fountains, bridges and monuments barely five or six years old, the project already shows signs of wear and tear. Cracks and crevices are visible in many of them, and in some cases, constructions have literally started crumbling away, exposing the poor building materials used.
Marred by controversy from the start, partly because of its steep price, and partly for its dubious artistic choice, drawing inspiration from Classical antiquity, the brainchild project of former PM Nikola Gruevski was originally promoted as giving a brand-new look to the shabby-looking City of Skopje.
During the hey day of construction, between 2011 and 2017, when the former government collapsed, critics pinpointed the project’s poor choice of materials and questionable artistic quality as some of its many flaws.
Now, with many of the completed buildings, fountains, bridges and monuments barely five or six years old, the project already shows signs of wear and tear. Cracks and crevices are visible in many of them, and in some cases, constructions have literally started crumbling away, exposing the poor building materials used.
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Source: BIRN
Source: BIRN
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