KAMEN MOST (МОСТ МОСТ)

This stone bridge (Камен Мост/Kamen Most, or Ura e Gurit in Albanian) is the symbol of Skopje: it connects the western and eastern banks of the Vardar River and appears on the city's coat of arms. It attracts an often dense crowd. Sometimes you have to make your way through the improvised stalls of street vendors. Supported by thirteen arches, its deck extends over 214 m in length and 6.33 m in width. The date of its construction is not known. Some evoke Roman or Serbian origins. The bridge is sometimes called "Dušan's bridge" (Dušanov Most) in reference to the Serbian king who would have built it in 1346. But the most likely hypothesis is that it was built by the Ottomans between 1421 and 1481, shortly after the conquest of the city in 1392. In any case, the bridge is associated with the uprising led by Petar Karpoš in October-December 1689, who was captured by Ottoman troops and ended up impaled in the center of the bridge (the supposed location is marked by a memorial plaque). Several times damaged by the Vardar floods, the bridge was consolidated and widened in 1909. Spared by the earthquake of 1963 and closed to traffic in 1967, it was damaged during the civil war of 2001. Important restoration works were then carried out until 2009. On this occasion, its coating and its parapet were redone. The central arch has also recovered its former watchtower with a mihrab, a niche indicating the direction of Mecca.