Josif Mihailović Jurukovski

Josif Mihailović (Macedonian: Јосиф Михаиловиќ, Serbian Cyrillic: Јосиф Михаиловић) (1887 in Tresonče, Ottoman Empire – 11 March 1941 in Skopje, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was a Serbian politician and intellectual of Mijak descent, mayor of Skopje between 1929 and 1931, and was responsible for its transformation from an oriental Ottoman into a modern European city.

His father Mihailo was a builder who spent his life renovating churches in Macedonia and in Kosovo.

He enrolled in the Architectural Department of the Technical Faculty in Belgrade, from where he graduated in 1910 as one of the best students of that generation.

Most of the monumental buildings and other much needed infrastructural and educational objects were built on Mihailović’s insistence.

In his two terms, Skopje was given a detailed urban plan, an extensive water supply system, Matka dam, new railway station, the famous Officers Club on the banks of Vardar, town park, several suburbs based on the principles of “garden cities” and a zoo.