Welthauptstadt Mazedonia

Welthauptstadt Mazedonia or Skopje2014 is a project by the government of Macedonia led by the conservative VMRO-DPMNE to transform the capital city Skopje into the grand national capital till 2014. The idea for the grand national capital is thought to be directly inspired by the Welthauptstadt Germania envisioned by the Nazi Party to transform Berlin into a grand national capital.
In their paper "Mapping the symbolic reconstruction of Skopje" , for the "Remapping Skopje" workshop in 2008, Architect Blaz Kriznik and Anthropologist Goran Janev discuss the reformulation of the city from an "Open City" to a "Grand National Capital". Their work was first among the expert public to uncover the reconstruction of Skopje from the position of political power.
Art historian Nebojsha Vilikj later elaborated that "This reconstruction of the symbols of the society of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovens, and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia, refers also to the reconstruction of the three pillars of those states: the army, the religion and the capital"
Early plans for the city square
Before unveiling the 2014 plan, the Government of Macedonia proposed building of an Christian Orthodox church on the city square. The main argument of the Government and local authorities for the building of the church was the fact that there was a church located near by in pre-1963-earthquake Skopje and that every European capital had a church on the main square. This provoked a series of debates in the religious, political and architectural public.
Other religious communities, and most notably the Muslim community objected to the decision and later requested that a mosque should also be build on the square. The Muslim community used the same argument, explaining that at some point in history there was a mosque on the city square.
This plan received heavy criticism form the public on legal grounds as well. In the view of some legal experts the building of a religious structure by the Government questioned the separation of the church and state. To avoid the debate the Government later gave the land in question to the Macedonian Orthodox Church and explained that the it will be fully responsible for the proposed building.
Architects and urban planner also criticized the plan saying that the chosen location is an important pedestrian area and that placing any type of building in that place would hurt the communication.
The discontent with this plan reached a climax on March 28 2009 when a group of architecture students wanted to protest on the square. On route to the location they were intercepted by a much larger group of pro-church activists and violence erupted.

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