The building of the Old Railway station was designed and built in the period 1938 -1940 by the Serbian architect Gavrilovic. During the 1963 earthquake it was partly damaged, and today what remains of it represents a monument to that catastrophe of the city. Since 1970 it has become the Museum of the City of Skopje which exists as of 1949. It was adapted to a museum and now it has 4000 m2 out of which 2500 m2 are planned for the permanent exhibition (which is now being set up) and 800 m2 are used as a gallery for temporary exhibitions.
The clock on this old train station stopped at 5:17 am since the morning of 26 July 1963, when this piece of the grand modernist station of Skopje was one of the few parts of the city that remained standing after a massive earthquake crushed the city. It measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, killed nearly two thousand people, and left over a hundred thousand homeless after destroying about 80% of the city. It’s a reminder of a tragic moment in Skopje’s history.
