Story
The story of Stone Bridge in Skopje
Beneath your feet is the bridge that appears on Skopje's coat of arms and on the city's flag. Known in Turkish as Taş Köprü, it was built on Roman foundations under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror between 1451 and 1469. Twelve semicircular arches carry it 214 metres across the Vardar, linking Macedonia Square with the Old Bazaar. The great earthquake of 1555 damaged or destroyed four of its pillars, and repairs were made that same year.
In 1689 a man named Karposh was executed here. After the Second Balkan War, British consuls protected Ottoman buildings by persuading Serbian commanders that some dated back to Stefan Dušan's empire; this bridge was one of them, so it was also called the Dušan Bridge. In November 1944 retreating German forces placed explosives on it, but at the request of city notables they gave up at the last minute.
Today it still joins the two halves of the city that the river divides.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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