Skopje, 8 January 2024 (MIA) — Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska Stojchevska said a former movie theater in Bitola would be renovated this year and turned into a modern cultural center to enliven the local cultural scene.

The Partisan movie theater was built during former Yugoslavia. It used to be one of Bitola's main film screening venues for years – until, along with two other cinemas in the city, it was closed in the 1990s.

"We are starting to renovate it this year," Bitola-born Kostadinovska Stojchevska said in an interview with Bitola YouTuber Mimi Markovski whose "Yugo" series of videos features him driving a car around Bitola with interviewees on board.  

According to the Ministry of Culture, the project documentation and funding for the complete rehabilitation of the venue was approved by the state in 2023.

The renovated space will be used for organizing concerts, exhibitions, theater plays and other cultural events. Opening the new cultural center will also create new jobs. mr/