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...
Kokino, a bronze age ritual site, is a megalithic observatory sitting atop a volcanic hill. In 2001, the ruins of a Bronze Age settlement were found outside the small North Macedonian village of Kokino. Amid the signs of occupation like pieces of vessels and weapons, researchers also...
We made a short stop in Gračanica Monastery (it’s not allowed to take photos inside). The monastery, which is set on large, grassy grounds, was built by the Serbian king Stefan Milutin in 1321 on the ruins of a 6th-century basilica. The medieval-era paintings here are impressive enough...
Leaving Peja was a nightmare, because Google navigation brought us deep into downtown, literally just in the main square, it was not easy to turn back and find the correct road, but we made it. After thirty minutes Google brought us again to the totally wrong location in Dečani, so if you...
This church and nunnery complex on the outskirts of Peja is a raw slice of Serbian Orthodoxy. Outside on the landscaped grounds, all is bright and colorful, but once inside the church it feels more like you’re within a dark cave with magnificent faded frescoes covering the walls and...
We left Studenica Monastery in rainy and foggy weather, we drove (105 km / 3 hours) through serpentines of the Route 30 and 21 via Golija Mountains through Ivanjica town to Sjenica. The mountain is part of the Dinaric Mountain range and is heavily forested with significant biodiversity...
The curvy road brought us to one of Serbia’s most sacred sites, UNESCO-listed Studenica Monastery. It was established in 1196 on the slopes of Mt. Radočelo near Studenica River by the founder of the Serbian empire (and future saint) Stefan Nemanja and developed by his sons Vukan...
This Serbian Orthodox Monastery was built in 1170 on a hill surrounded by woods above the city of Novi Pazar. It was commissioned by Stefan Nemanja, who dedicated this church to St. George for letting him out of the dungeon cave, in which his brothers put him. The monastery represents the...
The Sopoćani Monastery, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is an endowment of Serbian king Stefan Uroš I (1243-1276). The monastery was built around the year 1260 near the source of the river Raška, 17 kilometers from the town of Novi Pazar. The church has a form of the Romanesque three-nave...
We stayed overnight below Gradina hill near the city of Novi Pazar. In the morning we walked the steep trail (950 m) to the Stari Ras, a 12th-century fortress. It was built there to defend the capital city of the first Serbian state on the accession of the Nemanjić dynasty in 1159. The...