Mirjana DIMOVSKA COLOVIC THE CLOCK TOWERS IN MACEDONIA: A TYPOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS Almost every town in Macedonia

has a clock tower. The oldest and the highest is in Skopje, the biggest Macedonian town. The dimensions of the clock towers are in accordance with the bazaars they belonged to, in proportion with bazaars size and wealth of the guilds. Not much smaller, and in their beauty and architectural expression not at all inferior, are the clock towers in Bitola and Prilep; their bazaars were significant, big and rich. In time, the development of the towns and bazaars varied, spreading or shrinking, depending on the economic and political situation, all of which from an architectural and urban point of view, did not affect the image of the old bazaars. Similarly, even today we are witnessing that the majority of clock towers, churches, mosques and bezesteens, i.e. objects which served for trading, religious, cultural and other purposes, are still beholders of past and present times, which functionally is understandable. The architectural expressions of the clock towers show no less important qualities, which shows that the builders knew all the principles of architectural composition and the effect of the perspective view. With their monumentality and spacious exposure the clock towers, in spite of the big changes in the urban layout, especially in the bazaars, managed to remain symbols of the towns until the present day. There was a clock tower in every big town in Macedonia. Out of the total of 21 towers, 10 are preserved completely (Skopje, Bitola, Ohrid, Gostivar, Prilep, Sveti Nikole, Veles, Kocani, Kratovo, Stip), 2 are dilapidated (Star Dojran, Negotino), while 9 are completely ruined (Tetovo, Kicevo, Kriva Palanka, Debar, Resen, Struga, Radovis, Kumanovo and Kocani). Location

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Since the 15th century the clock towers in Macedonia have been built in the centers of the bazaars, for whose function they were indispensable. They were located on dominant places to be seen by everybody and the bells to be heard as far as possible. Within our present perspective, their location may seem illogical, but if we return to the past a little, we will see that from that exact location they exerted the greatest domination on the life in the bazaar. The clock towers in Macedonia within the general urban layout were treated differently, primarily because of the changes the bazaar was going through. With the dislocation of the bazaar and its reduced size, the clock towers were left imprisoned within the urban town tissue, as in Skopje, Veles, Ohrid, Kratovo, Stip, Kocani, Star Dojran, Sveti Nikole and Negotino. With the demolition of the stores that were attached to the clock tower in Bitola, it was left alone in the center of the park that surrounds it. Only the clock towers in Prilep and Gostivar remained in the center of the bazaars, where they have always belonged. The clock towers are present in the general urban plans and most of them are conserved and in a good condition. The missing clock towers cannot be reconstructed, primarily because of the changed ways of life and the locations that have different purposes now. There are two types of clock towers in Macedonia according to their plans: square and polygonal. Most of the clock towers have square-shaped plans. Out of the 15 built, 7 are preserved (Bitola, Ohrid, Sveti Nikole, Veles, Stip, Kratovo and Kocani). The square clock towers have minor distortions in the plans. They are built with or without pedestals. The polygonal clock towers have 6 or 8 sides. There are only two 6-sided clock towers and they are not placed on pedestals. These are the clock towers in Prilep and Negotino. The clock tower in Prilep is one of the most beautiful while the one in Negotino is ruined. The 8-sided clock towers are placed on a square pedestal. There were 4 clock towers of this type in Macedonia: 2 of them completely preserved (the clock towers in Skopje and Gostivar), one is ruined (Star Dojran) while only a photograph exists from the clock tower in Kicevo. Construction The clock towers, built purposely or adapted, have combined construction. They are divided into parts, which is in accordance with the functional scheme: the division is in 3 to 5 parts which pyramidally narrow towards the top, ending with a pyramidal or vaulted roof. The highest is the body of the clock tower, upon which the room of the clock mechanism was built, and the bell was set on the top with tambour (open or closed) with a square or polygonal plan. The body of the clock towers with or without a pedestal are built with rubble stone and lime mortar pointing. In some of the clock towers as a binding material inside

THE CLOCK TOWERS IN MACEDONIA: A TYPOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

the walls, mud mortar was used, while the more representative clock towers used lime mortar. The rooms where the bells and the bell mechanism were kept had a frame (wooden) construction, visible or protected with mortared filling. In this part of the clock towers architectural elements were added (pillars and cornices). It made the faade livelier as it is the most conspicuous part of the clock tower. Every clock tower has a specific solution which makes all of them unique. The Bitola clock tower has its marble pillars, three on every corner, above which the perimetrical balcony is placed. In its center an octagonal tambour with semi-circular windows rises. The bell is placed inside the tambour and can still be heard to our present day. Most of stone walls were not mortared, just pointed. On some of the clock towers the wooden levelling layers are visible (Veles), and on others they are hidden in the stone mass (Bitola, Prilep, Ohrid). Only the clock tower in Star Dojran has brick levelling layers (opus insectum). The clock tower in Skopje got its present look in 1904. The pedestal and part of the octagonal body are made of stone which continues into a brick faade. Every edge of the octagonal plan is reinforced with brick pilasters and above the cornice the perimetrical balcony is placed. Above the balcony a double octagonal tambour with semicircular apertures is raised. If a comparative analysis is made between the clock towers in Skopje and Gostivar, it can be deducted that these two clock towers, with small differences in dimensions, have identical plans and probably were built and renovated (Skopjes clock tower) in the same period (1830). After their destruction by a fire, the Skopje clock tower was reconstructed with brick (1904) and the clock tower in Gostivar with a wooden construction lined with planks. After the earthquake of 1963, the clock tower in Skopje was seismically repaired while keeping the authentic look. The clock tower in Prilep (1858) is one of the clock towers without a pedestal. It rises directly from the ground, maintaining the hexagonal plan all the way to the top. In the room of the clock mechanism on every corner there are three wooden pillars (the idea was taken from the Bitola clock tower) lined with copper plates. The tambour is open, with six pillars, and has a concave hexagonal roof, covered with copper plates. The clock tower in Ohrid has a stone body above which the wooden construction lined with planks continues, and above the pyramidal roof the open tambour is raised inside which the bell is placed. This solution is characteristic for most of the clock towers and is one of the reasons for their decay by time or from fire. The lining with planks was done vertically as in Ohrid, Gostivar, Negotino, Stip (the original shape) and horizontally placed round pebbles as in the clock tower in Struga. The adapted clock towers mainly had a tambour for the bell and changes in the floor constructions. As for the clock mechanism, which had long clappers and weights, they were either completely removed as in Stip or apertures were made in the floor construction, whether vaulted or wooden (Kratovo). The floor construction is wooden, and the stairs are placed next to the wall leaving the middle area free (Skopje. Stip, Gostivar, Sv. Nicole). We must note, howe-

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ver, that during the reconstruction of the clock tower in Gostivar, the stairs were misplaced in the middle of the tower, because they did not abide by the original data. The clock towers in Bitola and Prilep have stone stairs built as in the minarets, melted into the wall mass, giving the body a monolithic look. The roof construction is wooden- even the clock towers with vaults follow this trend. It is pyramidal or vaulted and the covering (coating) is usually of lead or copper plates, except for the adapted medieval begs towers, which keep the pyramidal roof and the stone tablet covering and only the tambour gets a lead plate covering. The usual building materials are local: stone, wood, brick, mortar, stone tablets, lead and copper. Decoration As public buildings with a dominant location, the clock towers have always been built carefully and possessed high quality. Their height is the reason for the negligence of small details, since they were invisible from long distances. The emphasis was on the architectural elements that gave the final image of the highest part of the clock tower. The decoration was done with marble pillars, travertine and lace-like fences from forged iron. During construction, marble tombstones with inscriptions were used, as is the case with the clock tower in Bitola where a tombstone with Greek letters decorates the wall of the clock tower. The building is of high quality with smooth pointing and the upper parts under the cornice of the clock tower in Bitola have a bird with a snake in its beak engraved in the stone. The decoration of the clock towers was done by dividing the body with cornices, niches with circular apertures and windowpanes, and loop-holes in the massive stone body, which apart from the function of illuminating the staircase area, had the function of breaking the monotony of the wall surfaces of the faade. The frames were always separately furnished with semi-circular apertures, on which massive doors were set. Some of them were coated in forged iron (Prilep). With the same attention the windowpanes and the loop-holes were worked upon, as well as the decorative niches with circular profile where the stone was carefully cut in order to get the right outline. The interior was always neglected in the process, because the tower was only visited by the clock winder who took care of the clock mechanism. Stylistically, the clock towers cannot be categorized within any architectural style, although a tendency toward implementation of certain elements from neo-baroque can be observed. In this sense, the clock tower in Ohrid got a curved roof above the face of the clock. But whether this was because of the stylistic expression or the size of the clock, which in order to be visible had to be raised above the eaves of the roof, is not known.

THE CLOCK TOWERS IN MACEDONIA: A TYPOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

The clock tower in Prilep has circular niches on every second side of the stone body of the clock tower and the concave hexagonal pointed roof stylistically can be assigned to secession. The clock tower in Bitola has a neo-classical look. Still, the majority of the clock towers have simple functional, constructional and aesthetic solutions without the ambition for a stylistic expression. The clock towers are significant achievements of the profane architecture in Macedonia. With the use of local building materials and simple constructional and aesthetic solutions very important achievements have been attained. Many monumental buildings were built, which, with their height and aesthetics, deserve the attention of both citizens and researchers. With their impressive monumentality they testify for the past and the urban conception of the bazaar in the old towns.