Sv. Bogorodica,in Jankovec (the Holy Mother of God Monastery)

 

The village Jankovec, is located next to the small town Resen. There you can find the The Holy Mother of God Monastery (the Virgin Mary). The monastery can be found above the village.

Inside the monastery

The monastery is built before the 18th century.

Every year on the orthodox holiday Assumption of Mary a lot of people come to the monastery and light a candle.This holiday is on the 28th of August.


The whole village organizes the celebrations and they serve graf ( a Macedonian dish made of white beans). There was also always live music and people dancing "oro"(Macedonian traditional dance).But these past few years the nun that lives in the monastery, doesnt allow the music.  The village is famous for it's beautiful monastery.

Plocha Michov Grad, Bay of the Bones

Plocha Michov Grad is a prehistoric settlement on the water near Gradiste beach in Ohrid. There are restored houses 5 meters from the bottom of the sunny waters of Lake Ohrid. This is only a small part of what existed here around 1200 BC.

Plocha Michov Grad

 In ancient times, this settlement had 60 houses and was connected to the shore by the use of a movable bridge. A site where the underwater archaeological explorations brought out stone tools, ceramics and bones of animals and deer horns. The settlement was reconstructed in 2008. Wooden houses above the level of water and a museum with the salvaged artifacts. As a tourist you can walk around in the different houses and see how it maybe was back then.

Ohrid was enriched with another cultural and historical landmark as well as with a tourist attraction - Museum on Water. Which is an exceptional archaeological complex, which is one of a kind in the region.

On the southern coast of Gradiste Peninsula in the Bay of Bones, a settlement has been erected, which in the past; was spreading at a total surface of 8.500 m2.

Artifacts found under water.

 It is an authentic reconstruction of a part of the settlement, dating back between 1200 and 700 BC.

A Roman military fortification (Gradiste) has been reconstructed on the hill above the Bay of Bones simultaneously with constructing the settlement and the Water Museum.

The walls of the fortification that once had protected the Roman Empire from its enemies, are once again lifted up on the hill near Gradiste.


The Roman fortress is connected with the settlement in order for tourists and visitors to have an extraordinary opportunity to experience time travel, from prehistoric to ancient times and vice versa.

More to come...

I've been really busy and hadn't had the time to post all my stories and pictures from my last trip to Macedonia. I'm sorry about that.  I promise you that you'll have a lot more to see and read here in the next couple of weeks. Please write your comments on my stories,and give me ideas about some of your favorite places in Macedonia, then maybe I can write a story and take some photos from there on my next trip this year.

All of you that have facebook, please like my page there!!!

Sveti Spas - selo Evla, Resen

Sveti Spas can be found in the village Evla, a few kilometres from the town Resen. To reach the church you have to drive or walk from the village, up on the hill to the mountain. The church is built into the mountain wall. The church itself is really old, people don't really know how old it is. There is a lot of caves around the church, some can only be explored if you crawl on your knees through the tunnels leading to them.

There are a lot of mysteries circulating about the church and place surrounding it. Every year at the holiday Sveti Spas (Ascension) at one place in the cave, there is water dripping (some say holy water). You can't see water there on any other day. A lot of people gather there at the holiday mainly people living in Prespa-region. They light a candle in the church and people from the village are serving graf (a Macedonian specialty).

One of the caves

Inside the church

The stairs leading up to the church.

There is also a path on the mountain wall, where you have to climb through a passage in the cave. People say that couples that don't have or can't have children, should go this path 3 times in a row. And the saying is that it has helped maybe 90 % of all the couples that have done this.

The church has been rest orated in 2010. There is also a park before you climb up all the stairs leading to the church, where you can have a picnic or a barbecue. The view is marvellous and it is a nice and quiet place with the mountains and forest surrounding you.

Back from Macedonia -Pictures from Struga

Im back from my trip to Macedonia and I have a lot of posts to publish and a lot of pictures. First all the pictures from my visit to Struga. They are posted in a slideshow to the left. Enjoy!!!

Struga

The old bridge over the river Black Drim.

Struga is a town and popular tourist destination situated in the south-western region of the Republic of Macedonia, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. The old name of the city is Enchalon, the ancient Greek word for eel, a kind of fish that lives in the Lake Ohrid. Struga is located in an open valley on Lake Ohrid. The Black Drim river starts at the lake and divides the city.

Struga is also a place of important cultural significance in the Republic of Macedonia, as it is the birthplace of the poets Konstantin and Dimitar Miladinov. The main event of the cultural life in Struga is the world's largest poetry gathering. Its called
Struga Poetry Evenings, whose laureates have included several "Nobel Prize for Literature"-winners such as Joseph Brodsky, Eugenio Montale, Pablo Neruda, Seamus Heaney and many others since 1966.

River Black Drim

There are several cultural monuments in Struga and in its vicinity such as the Monastery of Kališta, a few kilometers away from the town center, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. It is believed that it dates from the 16th century, with frescoes from the 14th and the 15th centuries. The Church Sveta Bogorodica (St. Mary) in the village of Vraništa, is believed to be the one where Tsar Samuil was crowned. Near the village of Radolishta, a basilica from the 4th century has been discovered with a mosaic.

"Zenska Plaza" cafe-bar

You can enjoy three kinds of beaches in Struga called Male beach(Maska plaza), Female beach(Zenska), and Galeb Beach. A cafe-bar located on Female beach (called Zenska Plaza) have built a patio on the beach and a pier, which is a popular place at summertime. When sitting on the pier drinking coffee, it feels like your in the middle of the Lake. Out of the town center there is a popular restaurant built into a mountain-wall called Biser (Pearl). One of the restaurant's walls is actually the rocks of the mountain-wall.

Pictures from Krusevo

All the photos from my trip to Krusevo have been added to a slideshow and published on my blog. Enjoy!