Steve Lewis "makes the iron sing", writing about the fin-de-siecle wrought-iron works on Sofia's gates, and how those responsible for producing these elegant, playful devices were, in fact, or at least in many cases, the city's Roma. This supposedly "art-less" and "heritage/history-less" population has so left a "silent memorial". Read the full piece here.

In Prishtina, as we read on Balkan Insight, "rich foreigners keep rental prices soaring." While landlords profit from the massive presence of "internationals", locals - ready to pay half of the 5-600 euros purported in the article as an average for a central flat rented by a foreigner - increasingly go empty. According to a letting agent, it's the internationals who "unintentionally push up the average going rate by specifying what rent they are prepared to pay." This reminds me of the Sarajevo days when (according to an often related story) a vastly overpaid chauffeur in a dark suit would laugh at a university professor looking for bargains and say: "Look at you! All that education and you where are you now?" It strikes me as odd that international agencies seemingly haven't learned from past mistakes. "Stability" (their mission, ain't it?) is something else.

Macedonia seems very active recently what concerns archaeology and restoration of historical monuments; just have a look at the "Cultural Monuments" section on this website set up to promote these initiatives. Of the more recent monuments, the 16th-century Hamam in Debar and the 19th-century Bey's House in Tetovo, the latter to become an ethnographic museum (more here), are due for rehabilitation.