Locals wept and cheered as a huge bronze statue of the ancient warrior king Alexander the Great was erected on a plinth in the main square of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, on Tuesday.

The equestrian statue, which depicts Alexander riding Bucephalus, was erected on top of a 10-metre-high fountain. The complete structure is expected to reach 24 metres into the skyline.

Hundreds applauded as cranes lifted the statue, weighing 30 tons, on top of the pedestal, singing the national anthem and other patriotic songs, waving flags and shouting “Macedonia!”

Some wept for joy, saying, “Alexander has finally came home,” as one middle-aged bystander put it.

“I’m very excited also because I have a son called Alexander who lives abroad and when he was small he used to say ‘I’m Alexander the Macedonian’. This is a great move by the government,” another elderly woman said, tears in her eyes.

“This is a historic day that we have been long awaiting,” another bystander said. “With this, Macedonia’s identity is confirmed, here it is.”

“I feel proud to be Macedonian and God bless our prime minister for having brought us this warrior, the king of Macedonians,” said another referring to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski whose centre-right VMRO-DPMNE party recently won the general election.

“This is one way to get some tourists, so why not?” remarked a tourist from Chicago, filming the erection of the statue.

The erection of the monument has been highly controversial, as Greece insists that Alexander is a purely Hellenic figure and so belongs to Greece.

At home, opposition parties have also queried the cost of the statue, the way in which the decision to commission the statue was taken, as well as its potential impact on relations with Greece, already strained by the 18-year dispute over Macedonia’s name, to which Greece objects.

The bronze artwork was cast in the Fonderia Artistica Ferdinando Marinelli, a foundry in Florence, Italy and cost 4.5 euros million. Together with the pedestal the bill amounts to 9.4 million euros.

The statue is seen as the pinnacle of a massive government-funded revamp of the capital, named “Skopje 2014”.

The pricey makeover, expected to cost taxpayers several hundred million euros, involves the erection of a range of marble and bronze monuments of historic figures alongside sculptures, bridges, fountains, museums, a hall for the Macedonian philharmonic orchestra, a foreign ministry building, hotels and a church.

Most of the buildings and sculptures draw inspiration from Classical styles and are already under construction.

Greek officials have condemned the statue as provocative and retrograde. The monument was “an attempt to usurp Greek history”, the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gregory Delavekouras, said last week.

Delavekouras said that in the light of the ongoing dispute between the two countries over Macedonia’s name, the move “undermines our bilateral relations and hampers the negotiations under the UN” aimed at reaching a compromise solution.



Brussels has also taken a dim view of the statue. EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said: “If you have a neighbour… and there is an issue between two of you… and you are trying sincerely to solve it, I guess you would avoid doing anything that your neighbour might call a provocation.

“This is simple logic. I would expect the government in Skopje to avoid doing things which would be called by the other side provocations,” speaking on Macedonian A1 TV channel, Fule added.

Macedonia’s relations with Athens are already strained by the two-decade row over Macedonia’s name. Athens says use of the name “Macedonia” implies a territorial claim to the northern Greek province, also called Macedonia.

The Macedonian government has so far officially described the sculpture simply as an equestrian warrior, not mentioning that the warrior in question is Alexander the Great.