North Macedonia Fugitive PM’s Pious Project Ends in Bankruptcy

Harbinger of city's divisive makeover

The erection of the controversial church foreshadowed the bigger and much more divisive government project to revamp the entire capital in classical style, known as "Skopje 2014", which was first revealed in CGI in a government video in 2010.

Although the church controversy predates "Skopje 2014" by some years, the building was included in the "Skopje 2014" promotional video, so becoming an informal part of it.

The row began in 2009, when the VMRO DPMNE-led government first revealed the plans to build a big church on Skopje's main square.

Despite bearing no resemblance to it, it was presented as a renewal of an old church of the same name that had existed nearby but which was demolished in 1970s, after being damaged in the massive 1964 earthquake.

In March 2009, architecture students protested against the plan to put up a new church on the square, where it would obstruct pedestrian traffic. In violent scenes, a large crowd of church supporters carrying flags and crosses attacked the protesters.

Soon after, the country's second largest faith group, the Islamic Religious Community, also cried foul, demanding that the state also help rebuild an old mosque that had also lain near the main square in Ottoman times.

Following the prime minister's insistence that the church would be built no matter what, it was initially referred to as "Gruevski's Church".

As friction mounted between the Orthodox Church and mainly Albanian Muslims, and as arguments about government interference in religious matters failed to subside, the government compromised.

To avoid further uproar, that year the authorities donated the site to the Macedonian Orthodox Church, so that it, not...