Skopje's plans to build a museum in the grounds of the Macedonian capital's Kale fortress has been halted mid-construction following complaints about its overt Christianity and demands of a Muslim equivalent.

The museum was to be built in the style of a medieval church over the foundations of a recently excavated 14th-century Orthodox church and although authorities claim it'll be entirely secular and devoted to architectural finds from the site, Macedonia's biggest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, has cried foul and demanded a mosque built adjacent.

"Our message is that Albanians also contribute to and have responsibility for the creation of cultural traditions in Macedonia," protested Izet Mexhiti, the DUI mayor of the Skopje municipality of Cair, to Balkan Insight.

Originally built in the 6th Century and reconstructed in the reign of the Emperor Justinian I in 10th and 11th Centuries, Kale fortress has been the source of some of the Balkan's most impressive archaeological finds, from woodwind instruments believed to pre-date the construction of the fortress by an incredible 3,000 years, to more recent, though no less impressive, haul of Byzantine coins.

Would it have killed anyone to talk about this before they cracked on with the construction, and come to some sort of solution without the seemingly inevitable factitious arm wrestle?

As long as politics and lack of dialogue between communities keeps Macedonia's fantastic history in storage, the victims won't be either one group or the other, it'll be both. Not only does Macedonia need to strengthen the shared culture that binds it, it needs a culture of adoration for its ancient sites and cultural heritage to rival (and doubtless, irritate!) its Greek neighbour, and lures in tourists by the coachload.