On 12 August 1990, worshippers from across the country and Macedonians living beyond it converged on the centre of Skopje. After almost two decades of construction, the new Cathedral of Saint Clement of Ohrid was to be consecrated. Thirty-six years later, it is one of the city's most recognisable landmarks.

The date was not picked at random. 1990 marked 1,150 years since the birth of Saint Clement of Ohrid, and the cathedral carries precisely his name. The consecration was performed by the then Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, Gavril, concelebrating with members of the Holy Synod and a number of clergy.

The numbers of one building

The foundation stone was laid on 23 April 1972, to a design by architect Slavko Brezoski. The cathedral is of the rotunda type, 36 by 36 metres, composed entirely of domes and arches. The interior covers around 1,000 square metres and holds close to 6,000 worshippers.

The iconostasis is made of oak with floral motifs, 19.5 metres long and 12.5 metres high. The icons are the work of Đorđi Danevski and Spase Spirkovski. Under the central dome hangs a chandelier weighing five tonnes with around 400 lights, and there too stands the archbishop's throne, 3.5 metres tall, with two further two-metre thrones facing it.

Eighteen years from foundation stone to consecration. That is a span in which we cannot finish so much as a junction today - and this is a building with six thousand places under a roof of domes and arches, built at a time when Skopje was still rebuilding after the earthquake.

The award from Budapest

This year the cathedral's facade took first place in the public vote of the Baumit Life Challenge 2026 competition held in Budapest. Recognition handed out by a European audience for a building that rarely makes it onto foreign lists of architectural recommendations.

Skopje has a complicated relationship with its own architecture. The city is packed with buildings put up to make an impression, and holds very few that make one without having to explain why they are there. The cathedral belongs to the second group - it does not ask to be noticed, yet the whole panorama of the city turns around its domes.

Thirty-six years after the consecration, it still stands as what it was meant to be. In Skopje, that is no small thing.