On today's walk, we will be going through one half of a series of buildings and green areas known simply as the City's Wall.
This was an architectural project composed by the amazing Kenzo Tange, a legendary Japanese architect who set out to rebuild Skopje after a devastating earthquake nearly levels the entire city in 1963. Thousands died, and in the aftermath, the city was in ruin. In comes this legend to propose a new layout for the city. 🕺
His plan was much more encompassing than what we have today. Even the City's Wall was only partially completed. I am not quite sure why the project was halted a third way through, but you can imagine politics had something to do with it. 😅
Today we're gonna walk through the eastern stretch of the City's Wall. The wall* is separated by one of Skopje's biggest boulevards, so it makes for a great cutoff point.
Without further ado, this is the easter side of the City's Wall. 😌
🚩 NEIGHBOURHOODS 🚩
So there are two types of buildings in the City's Wall: 12 story towers and wide 6 story buildings. 🌇
In between these wide buildings, there are neighborhoods with lots of small parks and green areas. The towers are seemingly placed to close off these neighborhoods.
When you look at it from a bird's eye view it has crazy symmetry. Even more so if the plan was fully complete. Oh well.
The neighborhoods all have underground garages that are used to this very day - either as storage units or... wait for it... garages. 😱
There are also many make-shift hoops that have been placed throughout. These are all built by citizens a long time ago. //I'm saying they weren't placed by any official or government
These swings were in fact made by the government. They are a much later addition made only a decade ago. They are scattered throughout the City's Wall.
These were all pictures of one neighborhood, but they are all pretty much identical. As we walk towards the West Side, I will go through the outside areas and the many tunnels that can be found in these wide buildings.
🚩 CONNECTORS 🚩
The City's Wall is in a half circle. What I showed you now was on the outside of the circle. Time to head inside. Oh my. 😋
These areas are all lined up with all manner of capitalistic intentions. And I mean everything: shops, cafes, libraries, salons, furniture stores, banks, lawyer offices. Anything and everything. OH! There's also a police station! It's to the right of the picture on right - above. 😂 I'm not even joking I was just scared to take a direct picture of it because there were officers posted outside.
These 'tunnels' as they connected the outside and inside areas. This particular one has a very famous (and mediocre) fast food joint.
This store in particular always has the freshest fruit. Even more so than most markets in the city. City's Wall has it all. // bars
There are benches lined up all across. They are usually all occupied as this is a highly trafficked area. For reference, Stree Macedonia is at the center of the East Side's arch.
Because the project was never finished, when we go to the West Side next week, you will notice plenty of differences. 😁 The symmetry aspect for one is almost all gone. Fear not, we'll have a lot to talk about. 😉
Not sure where we'll go next week, but I reckon I'll find something interesting. // I actually am quite sure we're going to the city's Wall - West side, but let's not disturb the footer all that much
For the curious among you, here's a wiki page of Kenzo Tange's original vision. As you can see, I think the city would've looked so amazing... Now it's a jumble of buildings and designs... Oh well, such is life. 😅
Hope you guys enjoyed the read!
Obligatory shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙
All pictures taken by me using an iPhone 11.
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Thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. 😌