Background
Mihajlović was born in the village of Tresonče, close to Mavrovo, in 1887. His father Mihailo was a builder who spent his life renovating churches in Macedonia and in Kosovo. His mother’s family came from the neighboring Lazaropole.
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Josif Mihajlovic Jurukovski
Edit ProfileEducation
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.
Career
A number of important Macedonian Serbs came from this village. Mihajlović received his primary and secondary education in Skopje and Thessalonica. Mihajlović proceeded to post-graduate studies in Italy.
He returned to Serbia in 1912 to take part in the First Balkans War joining the Chetnik guerrilla unit of vojvoda Doksim and took part in the Kumanovo Battle where he was wounded in the head
In 1914, he was appointed to the Engineering Command of the General staff He stayed in military service until 1916 and the retreat of the Serbian army to Corfu.
He was then sent to the United States of America to gather financial help and volunteers for the Salonika Front. After the war, he first graduated for a civil servant at the Dubique University, Iowa.
He then went to the Sorbonne for specialization and also to London where he studied at the High School for Town Organization.
This is where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in 1920. Back in Belgrade, he was one of the founders of Feniks construction company. As one of the best-educated Serbs from Macedonia, Mihajlović was appointed to be the mayor of Skopje.
He performed this function on two occasions: from 1929 to 1936 and from 1939 to his death in 1941.
During his two terms he worked hard to transform Skopje into a modern city. Most of the monumental buildings and other much needed infrastructural and educational objects were built on Mihajlović’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. He actively supported Slobodan Jovanović’s Serbian Cultural Club (SKK).
Despite numerous political changes since his death in 1941, Skopje still has a street named after him.
