Matka Exhibition Center

Built at the mouth of Matka Canyon, the Matka hydropower plant launched in 1938 with an installed capacity of 4.2 MW, the result of a capital project conceived and overseen by engineer Miladin Pećinar, who famously declared at the dam’s completion, “If the dam goes, let the man who designed it go with it.” During World War II, the plant became a strategic target, surviving bombings and a foiled demolition attempt thanks to a group of partisan defenders. The dam also protected Skopje from major flooding in 1962 and 1979. In 2008, a new facility was built next door, decommissioning the original. Rather than demolish it, the 1930s building was converted into Macedonia’s first technology museum in 2017. Visitors can now handle 80-year-old instruments in the preserved control room, spinning the same dials that once regulated power to Skopje. The museum earned the International Council of Museums’ Museum of the Year Award in 2018. A pretty dam neat history!