Museum City of Skopje
Museum City of Skopje
3.5
Tours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
What is Travellers’ Choice?
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Top ways to experience Museum City of Skopje and nearby attractions
The area
Reach out directly
Best nearby
We rank these restaurants and attractions by balancing reviews from our members with how close they are to this location.
Restaurants
412 within 5 kms
Attractions
100 within 10 kms
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
3.5
81 reviews
Excellent
15
Very good
32
Average
21
Poor
9
Terrible
4
These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
This service may contain translations provided by Google. Google disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to translations, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from forgery.
investigator64
Ivanovo, Russia46,020 contributions
Sept 2023 • Couples
Strange as it may sound, the Skopje City Museum (Museum City of Skopje) owes its birth largely to the terrible earthquake that took place on the morning of July 26, 1963 (the tremors lasted only 20 seconds and the exact time of the strongest shock was recorded by a watch at the building of the former Skopje railway station, stopping at 5:17 am). In total, about 75% of residential buildings, almost all schools and hospitals, as well as the station and post office buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, so Skopje was cut off from the outside world...
Hundreds of people were killed and injured... Restoration work was carried out in the full sense of the word “by the whole world” - about 80 countries took part in it. As I already mentioned, the station building also received severe damage - it was partially destroyed.
Only one third of the structure survived the tremors. So they did not demolish it, but turned it into an exhibition space for the Skopje City Museum with an area of two thousand square meters (storerooms, restoration workshops and employee offices occupy almost the same area).
Pay attention to the clock located on the main facade: it shows those same terrible “5-17” - the time that divided the history of the city into “before” and “after”. As for the museum exhibition, here you can see exhibits telling the history of Skopje, starting with artifacts dating back to the time of the first settlement on this site (and this is the beginning of the 1st century AD) to the present.
As far as I know, there are extensive archaeological and ethnographic collections and an impressive selection of works of art. Do not miss!!!
Hundreds of people were killed and injured... Restoration work was carried out in the full sense of the word “by the whole world” - about 80 countries took part in it. As I already mentioned, the station building also received severe damage - it was partially destroyed.
Only one third of the structure survived the tremors. So they did not demolish it, but turned it into an exhibition space for the Skopje City Museum with an area of two thousand square meters (storerooms, restoration workshops and employee offices occupy almost the same area).
Pay attention to the clock located on the main facade: it shows those same terrible “5-17” - the time that divided the history of the city into “before” and “after”. As for the museum exhibition, here you can see exhibits telling the history of Skopje, starting with artifacts dating back to the time of the first settlement on this site (and this is the beginning of the 1st century AD) to the present.
As far as I know, there are extensive archaeological and ethnographic collections and an impressive selection of works of art. Do not miss!!!
Written 4 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Walther von der Vogelweide
Pescina, Italy11,931 contributions
Jan 2024 • Friends
On 26 July 1963 a catastrophic earthquake destroyed a large part of the city of Skopje.... The old railway station was not completely razed to the ground and since then the large clock above the main entrance still shows 5.5pm, the time of the earthquake . Now in the part that survived there is a museum that I have not visited.
Written 18 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jim H
Europe3,950 contributions
Aug 2024 • Solo
The museum is in the old train station and there is no cost to enter. There's a lot of information on the devasting earthquake of 1963. The clock on the train station is set to 5:17. which is the time of the earthquake. The museum is very informative.
Written 18 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
estrella05azul
19 contributions
Dec 2018 • Couples
This train station partially collapsed in the earthquake of 1963. It was left in its semi-destroyed state and currently houses the City Museum and serves as memorial to the disaster. The clock on its central facade stopped at 5:17, the exact time the earthquake struck.
Written 1 February 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Katie S
Brighton, UK219 contributions
Sept 2016 • Solo
On the one hand this museum is in a very interesting building which is really quite haunting and the exhibition about the earthquake is very interesting. On the other hand being there was a little bit like being in a scene from a horror film. You could just walk in and no one pays attention and there are stair cases which don't seem to go anywhere. I loved it right up until the point when I got scared and ran away!
Written 10 September 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Gill128
Birmingham, UK57 contributions
May 2017 • Solo
I wanted to visit this museum partly because it is housed in the old railway station, and partly to see what it had to show about Skopje. I wandered in and found most of the building was given over to an art exhibition, which did not seem appropriate, and which did not interest me. This part was brightly lit.The part I wanted to see - about Skopje - I could hardly see because the lights were not on. What I could make out in the gloom looked very interesting, but there was nobody to ask to put the lights on, and it felt as though it had been totally deserted. I was very disappointed, but as it was free to enter (there was no one to pay) I suppose I should not complain
Written 9 May 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Milan S
Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia192 contributions
Nov 2019
If you can visit the museum of Skopje, you will find some interesting artefacts of ancient and prehistoric past of the town. It used to be central rail station before the catastrophic earthquake on 26 July, 1963, 5:17 AM. On the most eastern outside wall used to be a text in golden letters from President Tito, of a speech hours after the quake. It was removed in period when VMRO (right wing macedonian party) had a government and was never put back.
Written 15 December 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Wandering Traveler
Bridgeboro, GA2,566 contributions
Aug 2017 • Solo
The cost 100 Macedonia dollars. The place has beautiful art exhabits on the lower floors and beautiful white marble statues. Almost mint condition. The earth quake information was great. The way surrounding countries near and far reached out to assist. I'm glad to see they preserved the old train station. Yes it's creepy, dimly lighted, stairs going to no where but stop and visit.
Written 5 August 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Svetlana S
Malta22 contributions
Nov 2019 • Family
Went there this morning, there were some people inside (assume they work there, they were moving some furniture around), no signs of where to go, we wandered around the ground floor, nothing there, went into some side room, there were people there, seemed like a rehearsal or something, they told us "go out". Which we did. No clue what was supposed to be there, no museum attendants or guards. So may be its a nice place, we just didnt manage to find any exhibition there.
Written 1 November 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
FairCityFrasie
Perth, UK1,941 contributions
May 2019 • Solo
The museum is housed in the old railway station building, mostly destroyed in the 1963 earthquake. Only 2 of the former arches remain and you can still see where the rest of the building fell away. The clock at the front is stopped at 5:17am, when the earthquake struck. I first went along on Sunday late afternoon but as it was about to close, the security guard said "No - come back tomorrow". I went back next day and stepped through the front door (it was open) and the security guard again said "No - closed on Monday". Despite pleading for 5 minutes, his militant demeanour suggested I'd better drop it. This meant I had to rush back on Tuesday morning before zipping to the airport for my flight. I got in - its free - it can easily be done in less than half an hour - I was only really interested in the earthquake room and exhibits. Worth doing for the earthquake and actually being in a building that survived the 1963 earthquake.
Written 20 May 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No questions have been asked about this experience
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing