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The Mother Teresa Memorial House ( mk, Спомен-куќа на Мајка Тереза, ) is dedicated to the
Catholic saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
and
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology ...
laureate
Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was b ...
. It is located in her hometown
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Sk ...
, in
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...
, where she lived from 1910 to 1928. The memorial house was built on the popular Macedonia Street in the Centar municipality, on the very location of the once Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, where Mother Teresa was baptized. It lies just east of the Ristiḱ Palace and the Macedonia Square. In the first three weeks, the memorial house was visited by 12,000 people.


Opening

The memorial house worth two million euro was opened on 30 January 2009 by Macedonian Prime Minister
Nikola Gruevski Nikola Gruevski ( mk, Никола Груевски, pronounced ; hu, Nikola Gruevszki; born 31 August 1970) is a Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation, which was caused by the 2016 Ma ...
and is one of Skopje's newest landmarks. The opening was attended by foreign delegations, members of the Roman Catholic Church in North Macedonia and
Macedonian Orthodox Church The Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MOC-AO; mk, Македонска православна црква – Охридска архиепископија), or simply the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) or the Archdiocese o ...
. One week prior to the opening, the Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milošoski placed a commemorative plate at Mother Teresa's grave in
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
, with the engravement "Token of Gratitude from the Republic of Macedonia and the Fellow-Citizens of Her Native Town Skopje".


Architecture

Construction of the house began in May 2008. The project was financed by the Government of Macedonia and carried out by the Ministry of Culture. It is a modern, transformed version of Mother Teresa's birth house with a multifunctional but sacral character. Inside the house, part of her relics are preserved, which were transferred to Skopje with support of the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
of Skopje, an arrangement announced by Nikola Gruevski at the grand opening. There is a museum which includes realistic sculptures of Mother Teresa and members of her family. One sculpture shows Mother Teresa as a ten-year-old child, sitting on a stone and holding a pigeon in her hands. The house also hosts cultural exhibits and includes a gallery. The architect of the project is Vangel Božinovski, assisted by Slobodan Arsovski.


Response

Architecture professor Divna Pencić has called the building “a tactless and tasteless homage to Mother Teresa” and “a depressing example of political meddling”:Pencić, D. (2009). A tactless and tasteless homage to Mother Teresa. The Architectural Review, 1(8), 18–24.


References


External links


Official website of Memorial House of Mother Teresa (in English, Macedonian and Albanian)Media Information Agency (in English)Media Information Agency (in Macedonian)Vest newspaper (in Macedonian)Večer newspaper (in Macedonian)
{{coord, 41, 59, 38, N, 21, 25, 51, E, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Houses in North Macedonia Buildings and structures in Skopje Religious buildings and structures completed in 2009 Museums in North Macedonia Museums established in 2009 Memorials to Mother Teresa