On the capitals City Square “Makedonija”, building has began of the the memorial to Mother Teresa, which will be 32 metres high and for which the Government have allocated 5 million euros (without VAT) from the budget.
In mid June when the Ministry of Culture announced the tender for the construction of the monument, “Meta” asked the opinion of the Vatican and the pontiff, Pope Francis, about the Government’s decision to build a monument of the modest and humble humanitarian Mother Teresa, which will cost an outstanding 5 million euros.
After seeking a response from the Holy See to the question of what the Pope thought about the Macedonian Government building a monument which will cost 5 million euros – we were stonewalled.
According to the tender, the contractor of the 600 square metres should build a structure with a terrace, fountain, monuments of Mother Teresa, compassionate nurses, angels, decorative garlands in the shape of a chalice and other reliefs made out of marble and bronze.
Architects Valentina Stefanovska and Kiril Mukaetov created the concept for the design.
The firm ‘Beton’ were awarded the tender and construction is estimated to last for 18 months. The Institute for Testing of Materials and Developing New Technologies will be supervising the over all performance, and the documentation for the project was crafted by the Civil Engineering Institute “Macedonia”.
The monument was meant to be built by Indian businessman Subrata Roy. However he has been in prison since last March due to embezzlement charges over 2 billion pounds sterling.
“We will build a great home, the home of Mother Teresa. I have a proposal for the Macedonian government and its citizens, the statue will be built in Skopje and will be called Statue of Humanity”, said Mr Roy marking the occasion at beginning of the project for the setting up a memorial site for Mother Teresa.
Since donations were not realised, the Ministry of Culture took over the funding.
