This is the impressive entrance to the Main Orthodox Chuch St. Clement of Ohrid in Skopje, Macedonia. The church was only built 15 years ago. Skopje has a very long history where it has had many highlights but has had some major tragic events too. After the Romans had conquered it in 148 BC it became a christian city, it flourished and had it's own bishop. But in the year 518 AD a big eartquake completely destroyed the city. It took a long time before the city became notable again at the end of the first millenium as part of the Macedonian Empire. But Skopje just as Macedonia constantly was ruled by new masters: Normans, Serbs, Bulgarians, Byzantines, and in 1392 it fell in Turkish hands and stayed that way until the Balkan wars made an end to that in 1912. Then after the Versailles Peace treaty it became part of Yugoslavia, and is only recently the capital of the country Macedonia. Photo by Raphael Cruz.