Museums & Galleries, Macedonia

Museum of the City of Skopje

Museum of the City of Skopje was founded in 1948.In 1970 it was housed into an adapted part of the old Railway Station,object that has been protected  as a cultural monument.Since then it functions as a complex museum that embodies the fields of archeology, history, ethnology, art history and the contemporary art in the region of the city of Skopje.

South of the centre, the only interesting thing about the City Museum is its partly-ruined exterior. The clock is frozen at 5.17 on the morning of the tragic Skopje earthquake of 27 July 1963, which killed 1066 people and almost demolished the city.

 The museum is home to permanent еxhibitions representing the history of Skopje, from the first recorded settlements around 3000 BC to present. Museum of the city of Skopje has four departments: archaeology, ethnology, history and art history.

Memorial House of Mother Teresa

The Mother Teresa Memorial House is dedicated to the humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa and is located in her hometown Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia. The memorial house was built on the popular Macedonia Street in the Centar municipality, on the very location of the once Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, where Mother Teresa was baptized. It lies just east of the Macedonia Square.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje

The Museum of Contemporary Art –was founded in 1964 on the initiative of several renown artists, art historians, international associations and societies, museums and galleries from all over the world. The immediate occasion for this initiative was the earthquake that in 1963 destroyed Skopje, which was followed by a worldwide action for renovation. One side of that action of international solidarity and its actual symbol was the collection founded in the Museum of Contemporary Art. The international collection, created by way of donations, includes the works of Picasso, Hartung, Vasarely, Calder...

It houses a precious international collection and provides a representative insight into modern Macedonian art. In addition to its collection, the Museum organizes major exhibitions and events of Macedonian and foreign art, discussions with artists, panels, film and video presentations, lectures and a variety of other activities.

The collection is made up of two segments; international and national. The international segment of the collections reflects the modern art from almost all parts of the world. The larger part of the collection marks the art movements of the 1950s, 1960's and 1970s, although it contains also around a hundred works of the early modern art.

Museum of Macedonia

This is a national museum with departments that research and exhibit the arheological, ethnological,historical, and artistic heritage of Macedonia.The museum cares for over 66,000 items; on permanent display are exibits from arheology,ethnology, history, and an Icon Gallery.In Kurchumli Han, within the museum complex, an exibition of stone monuments is on display.Macedonia’s long and legendary history has been carefully preserved in its museums, the most important ones being  in Skopje. The Archaeological Museum takes the tourist on a journey through the millennia, from the Neolithic Age, the Bronze and the Iron Ages, the Classical and the Hellenic Periods, all the way through to the Roman, Slavic, Byzantine and Turkish Periods.

The Historical Museum gives a chronological overview of Macedonian history throughout the centuries up to the National War of Liberation.

The Ethnographic Museum offers thematically displayed set of items.

Finally, the Natural History Museum showcases many examples of the indigenous and sometimes odd flora and fauna found throughout Macedonia.

Apart from their permanent exhibitions, Macedonia’s museums organize temporary exhibitions as well as other appealing events with featuring gift shops where tourists can purchase certified replicas of Macedonian icons, booklets and other souvenirs.

In addition to the major museums established in Skopje, smaller museums and archives with their own unique collections can also be found in many beautiful Macedonian towns.

Permanent exhibitions:

Archaeology: from the Paleolithic Period 10.000 BC to the 14th c. A.D;  settling of the Slavs, 6th c. A.D to 1945.

Ethnology: folk costumes, jewelry, traditional architecture, textiles, crafts, economy, customs and traditional musical instruments – history of art exhibition of fresco-replicas, Lapidarium - stone monuments exhibition in Kurshumli Inn, Icon Gallery  14th - 19th century icons exhibition.