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Üsküp.
The town stayed under Ottoman control over 500 years, serving as the capital of
pashasanjak of Üsküb and later the
Vilayet
of Kosovo. At that time the city was famous for its oriental architecture. In
1912 the city was liberated by the
Kingdom
of Serbia
during the
Balkan Wars
and after the First World War the city
became part of the newly formed
Kingdom
of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In the Second World War
the city was conquered by the
Bulgarian
Army, which was part of
Axis
powers. In 1944 it became the capital city of
Democratic
Macedonia
(later
Socialist Republic of Macedonia),
which was a federal state, part of
Democratic
Federal Yugoslavia
(later Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The city developed rapidly after World War II,
but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a
disastrous earthquake. In 1991 it
became the capital city of independent
Macedonia.
