Macedonia's New Govt Halts Skopje 2014 Makeover

As Macedonia's likely new Culture Minister announces a complete halt to the quasi-baroque revamp of the capital known as Skopje 2014, architects have said they hope some of the historic buildings given new facades will be restored to their original state.

"We must immediately stop Skopje 2014 because every day, like out of Pandora's box, it produces new kitsch monuments, sculptures, passages and colonnades that no one needs but for which we all pay a hefty price," Culture Minister-designate Robert Alagjozovski told Makfax news agency.

Alagjozovski announced a complete revision of the project.

"We will organize an international conference about the project aimed at developing future scenarios about what to do with it. We will be careful with the solutions," he said.

The massive government-sponsored revamp which transformed the look of Skopje was masterminded by the former government led by Nikola Gruevski.

It encompasses dozens of new buildings, hundreds of facades, giant monuments, bridges and other acts of beautification, mostly inspired by the artistic styles of classical antiquity.

The project has also been widely criticized for its lack of transparency, and has given rise to suspicions that it became a way to siphon out money from the state budget.

From the initially announced price tag of 80 million euros, the cost of the capital's new/old look has since risen to over 600 million euros, a BIRN database shows.

The former head of the Macedonian Association of architects, AAM, Sanja Regenovic-Jovanovic, said some corrections are now necessary. Like other architects, she suggest starting with restoring the former modernist look of the government headquarters.

This building constructed in...