Religious tour Macedonia

Pick up from the Skopje airport. Accommodation in a hotel in Skopje. Orientation walk and time on your leisure. Welcoming dinner in a national restaurant. Overnight.

Breakfast. We will make a city tour through the Old part of Skopje and there we will visit the church Holy Savior and the Mustafa Pasha’s mosque. Lunch in a restaurant. After that we will continue our trip to Nerezi settlement and visit church St. Pantaleimon, built and painted in 1164. Among the best achievements is the fresco Lamentation of Christ, considered by the art historians as a masterpiece associated with the renaissance at a much earlier stage than the blossoming of the Italian Renaissance with Giotto. For the end of the day, we will visit Marko’s monastery built in 14th century in the village Sushica. We will come back in Skopje for dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel. We will check out from the hotel and we will drive to the village Staro Nagorichane (55 km), near Kumanovo. We will visit a medieval church built in 1313. The church has preserved the original stone iconostasis and it is the only example in the country of iconography by using the fresco technique. We will continue to Ginovci restaurant (38 km) for lunch. Next sightseeing will be the monastery St. Nikola in Psaca (7 km) built in 1354. There you could sее a fresco of the medieval Serbian rulers Urosh and Volkashin. Last monastery for today is St. Joakim Osogovski (20 km), built by the famous Macedonian architect – Andrej Damjanov. On an altitude of 825m above the sea level and surrounded by the picturesque landscape of the oak forest, St Joachim Osogovski Monastery is becoming one of the most interesting tourist attractions in the country. Accommodation in the monastery ann. Dinner. Overnight.

Breakfast in the ann. We continue our trip to Probishtip and visit the monastery St. Gavril Lesnovski (80 km). This monastery was built in the XI century and after that reconstructed in the XIV century. The iconostas is from 1811-1814 made by Petre Filipovski – Garkata. After that we will drive to Strumica (100 km) and have lunch. Here, we will visit the monastery St. Leonthius (5 km) in Vodocha. Near this church in the year 1014, 14.000 soldiers from the army of Tsar’s were blinded. Our next sightseeing is the monastery Holy Mother Merciful in Veljusa (5 km) built in 1080, where you could see a unique fresco of Jesus Christ as a 12 year old boy. The monastery kept his original architecture and part from the original marble iconostas and floor. Dinner in a restaurant in Strumica. Overnight in a hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. We will see the church Sts.15 Tiberiopolis Holy Martyrs - the protectors of Strumica. Afterwards, we will continue our trip to Prilep (145 km). Lunch in a national restaurant. Here, we will see the monastery St. Archangel Michail from the XIV century with a fresco of King Marko. The last sightseeing for today will be the monastery Treskavec (15 km), from where we have a beautiful view of Prilep. Back to Prilep (15 km) and accommodation in a hotel. Dinner. Overnight.

Breakfast. Continue our trip to Bitola and see the church dedicated to St. Demetrius (45 km). We will have lunch in Bitola. Later, visit the monastery in Kurbinovo (40 km) built in 1191 in the time of the Byzantine emperor, Isak II Angel. You will have a chance to see many frescoes. A drive to Ohrid (50 km) and accommodate in a hotel. Dinner and overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel. Ohrid is a city of UNESCO and in the medieval times there existed 365 churches, one for every day in the year. First we will visit the churches in the old part, such as the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos, built in 1295 by a Byzantian commander Progon Zgur. Their dramatic expressiveness was the basis of the new trend in Byzantine art from this epoch, called The Renaissance of the Paleologues. Later, we will visit the church St. Pantaleimon in Plaoshnik, where the grave of St. Clement Ohridski is located (died 916). Our next church is St. John Theologian in the Kaneo settlement. This church is almost on all cover pages of tourist guidebooks about Macedonia. Lunch in a restaurant. We will visit the oldest church in Macedonia St.Sofia built between 1037 and 1056. The cathedral was the seat of the Ohrid Archbishopric for several centuries and its ecclesiastical authority covered a vast territory, from the Danube to the Albanian coast and the Bay of Thessalonica. In the afternoon we will drive to the settlement St. Naum (27 km) to visit the monastery St. Naum, where the grave of St. Naum is located (died 910). We will come back to Ohrid (27 km) for dinner in a restaurant. Overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel. Today we will visit the cave church – Kalishta (20 km). One of the churches devoted to the Nativity of Holy Mother of God is a cave church and a symbol of the monastery as well as of the particular lifestyle known as asceticism and characterized by abstinence of physical pleasures and time spent in fasting and pursuing spiritual goals. The cave church is built in the the 14th century and is authentic and preserved with no restoration. After that we will continue our trip to the monastery St. John Bigorski (80 km). The story of this monastery starts with the oldest miraculous icon with healing power, originating from the 11th century, dedicated to the name of St John the Baptist. The first church was built in 1020 by the monk John. One of its most valuable treasures is the iconostasis, made in five years, from 1830 to 1835. Lunch in a restaurant in Mavrovo (35 km). Next sightseeing will be the Colourful Mosque in Tetovo (50 km), one of the rare examples of painted mosques in the world. Our last monastery for visiting will be St. Andrew from the end of the 14th century in the Matka Canyon (35 km). After visiting this monastery we will drive to Skopje (20 km). Accommodation in a hotel. Farewell dinner in a national restaurant. Overnight in the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Free time. Driving to the Skopje International Airport, about 40 minutes from the hotel.