Part Balkan, part Mediterranean and rich in Greek, Roman and Ottoman heritage, Macedonia has a fascinating past and a complex national identity.
A shortstop in one of the oldest cities in Macedonia. The city has been founded as Heraclea Lyncestis in the middle of the 4th century B.C. by Philip II of Macedon. The city was also the last capital of Ottoman Rumelia. It was really long walk to the archeological park from the place...
The Monastery of Saint Naum is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in North Macedonia situated 29 km south of Ohrid (parking fee 150 MKD). It is an imposing Byzantine-style structure on a cliff near the Albanian border named after the medieval Saint Naum who founded it. Naum was a contemporary...
We knew that Museum on the water is closed on Monday, but since it was on the way to St Naum Monastery, we gave it a try. And we were lucky enough to find a friendly guard, who opened it for us (entrance 150 MKD). In prehistoric times Lake Ohrid was home to a settlement of pile dwellers...
Our first stop in Macedonia was a small city on the shores of Lake Ohrid with a compact old town, where medieval churches, monasteries, and open-air ruins stand alongside traditional houses with red-tiled roofs. The massive walls of the centuries-old Samoil’s Fortress, at the top of the...
This revered 1020 Byzantine monastery surrounded by dense forest is nested above the canyon of River Radika on the foot of Bistra Mountain. The monastery got its name Bigorski because it has been built with large blocks of travertine. The frescoed church houses what is alleged to be St...
We spent all day driving road R1201 through National Park Mavrovo. It is the largest national park in North Macedonia located in the west of the country. It was established in 1949 covering an area of 780 km2. It is characterized by deep gorges, karst fields, lakes, waterfalls, and dense...
We planned to drive from Stobi to Janče in one day with some stops in Zrze and Prilep, but due to a heavy landslide on A1 Road, which blocked us for 6 hours, we made it only to Kičevo. It is a city in the western part of North Macedonia, located in a valley on the south-eastern slopes of...
We drove through tobacco fields along a narrow, steep mountain road to Zrze Monastery, where only 7 monks live now. It is located on the clifftop above the village Zrze at an elevation of 1000 meters, around 26 kilometers from Prilep. The monastery’s tranquil position around a...
On our way to Zrze Monastery, we made a short stop in Prilep’s Revolution Park. There is Burial Mound of the Unbeaten – a magnificent monument to Prilep’s Partisan soldiers who died in WWII. It is the 1961 work of one of the former Yugoslavia’s most brilliant...
Stobi (entrance 120 MKD) was an ancient town of Paeonia, later conquered by Macedon, and finally turned into the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia Salutaris. Stobi was built where the Erigon (Crna River) joins the Axios (Vardar), making it strategically important as a center for...