USKUB  , Uscup, or SKOPIA (anc . Scupi, Turk . Ushkiib, Slay . Skoplye), the

capital of the vilayet of Kossovo, European Turkey; on the left bank of the river Vardar, and at the junction of the railways from Nigh and Mitrovitza to Salonica . Pop . (1905) about 32,000, consisting chiefly of Slays (Serbs and Bulgars), Turks, Albanians and a few gipsies . Uskub occupies a picturesque and strategically important position at the foot of a valley which severs two mountain ranges, the Shar Planina and Kara Dagh . Main roads radiate N.W. to Prizren, W. to Gostivar, an important centre of distribution, E.N.E. to Kumanovo, and thence into Bulgaria, and S. to Kopriilii and Monastir . The city is the headquarters of an army corps, and the see of an Orthodox Greek archbishop, of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Albanians and of a Bulgarian bishop . Its principal buildings are the citadel, the palace, of the vali or provincial governor, the Greek and Bulgarian schools, numerous churches and mosques and a Roman aqueduct . The industries include dyeing, weaving, tanning and the manufacture of metal-work, wine and flour, but Uskiib is chiefly important as the commercial centre of the whole vilayet of Kossovo (q.v.) . The Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Banque de Salonique have branches in the city, and French is to a remarkable extent the language of commerce .

Uskub retains in a modified

form the name of Scupi, one of the chief cities of northern Macedonia . A few unimportant ruins mark the ancient site, about 11 m . N.W . Scupi was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D . 518, but was rebuilt by Justinian under the name of Justiniana Prima . Up to the 14th century it was at times the capital of the Servian tsars .