Following the earthquake,
Josip Broz Tito, president of SFR Yugoslavia, sent a message of condolences to the
Socialist Republic of Macedonia before visiting the city personally later on. Within a few days after the earthquake took place, 35 nations requested that the
United Nations General Assembly place relief for Skopje on their list of agendas. The effort led to the implementation of a major urban and architectural reconstruction plan
urban master-plan of Skopje 1963. Relief, in the form of money, medical, engineering and building teams and supplies was offered from 78 countries throughout the world. Substantial relief also arrived from the
Soviet Union. Its leader,
Nikita Khrushchev, visited Skopje personally. As the
SFR Yugoslavia was a member of the
Non-Aligned Movement during the
Cold War, the American and Soviet troops stationed in Skopje could freely shake hands for the first time since their
encounter on Elbe in 1945. The first foreign journalist who arrived in Skopje to report on the earthquake was
David Binder of
The New York Times. As he watched Skopje from the plane, he commented that the city looked like it was
bombed. The United Kingdom-based charity
War on Want organised a public appeal and contracted with UK engineer
Demetrius Comino to provide Dexion building frame materials and personnel under Barto Stuart to enable the building of 1560 dwellings, enough for two complete villages, one of which was nicknamed Dexiongrad. Dexion belongs to the Skopje's
Municipality of Gjorče Petrov. At the same time, the UK Government made a gift of 44 x 24 feet wide Nissen huts which the Yugoslav authorities used as six schools to be used in satellite suburbs until permanent schools could be established. The construction of these huts was under the supervision of a small detachment of nine Royal Engineers led by Lt Charles Brodley RE. Later, "War on Want" purchased sufficient huts to provide accommodation for 2,000 workmen engaged in the reconstruction of the city and the Engineer detachment was increased to 49 under the command of Captain SL Rooth RE. In 1965, the Japanese architect
Kenzo Tange was asked by the United Nations to enter a limited competition for the
redevelopment of Skopje, after which Tange won 60% of the prize while the Yugoslav team won the remaining 40%. However, Tange's plan for Skopje (one of his major works) remains partly implemented, specifically concerning the New Skopje Railway Station and the so-called City Wall. : National Security Action Memorandum No. 267 Disaster Assistance for Skopje – NARA – 193638, written and signed on October 18, 1963, by president Kennedy's
national security advisor McGeorge Bundy As the city gradually began to recover, the need for revival of cultural life arose. The artist
Pablo Picasso donated his painting Head of a Woman (1963), which was exhibited in the new post-earthquake
Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia. The museum building was a donation from
Poland and was designed by several Polish architects. The concert hall "Univerzalna sala" was built with donations from around 35 countries and its
prefabricated building was made in neighbouring
Bulgaria. After the request of the
Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia the
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Rab Butler informed the
House of Commons of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom on February 19, 1964, that the
Government of the United Kingdom has approved new 500,000
GBP loan for reconstruction of Skopje. Several streets and objects in Skopje were named in honor of the countries which helped in their construction and/or donated housing. For example, the government of
Romania donated the
polyclinic medical center, which was named after its capital,
Bucharest. In
Karposh Municipality, there are Soviet-donated
apartment buildings called in
Macedonian: „руски згради“ (
ruski zgradi, meaning "Russian buildings") and
Swedish and
Finnish prefabs called „шведски / фински бараки“ (
švedski /
finski baraki). The old name
Meksička was brought back in February 2021 by the Skopje City Council. Being rebuilt from ruins thanks to the relief from all around the world, Skopje is often referred to as "The City of International Solidarity", which is its motto. One year after the 1963 Skopje earthquake, the first Yugoslavian Code for Construction in Seismic Regions (temporary code 1964), was prepared by a committee consisting of international and national experts. ==Popular culture==