Visit to Saint Naum Monastery is without a doubt great experience. It's
a place where you can fully spend your day and enjoy many
attractions... In addition to many fun activities and enjoying beautiful
surroundings, the monastery complex is a wonderful place for
relaxation, enjoyment and resting.
A blog by Traveling is Awesome
One of the nicest monastery complex in the region. It has been very
crowded, even in the morning on the first day of the year. Lots of
people come to visit this place through the year, because of it`s beauty
and cultural heritage. Built by the St. Naum of Ohrid himself, it was
established in the Bulgarian Empire in year 905. St. Naum is also buried
in the church.
The Monastery of Saint Naum is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the
Republic of Macedonia, named after the medieval Saint Naum who founded
it. It is situated along Lake Ohrid, 29 kilometres south of the city of
Ohrid. The Lake Ohrid area, including St. Naum, is one of the most
popular tourist destinations in Macedonia.
From the center of Ohrid to St. Naum monastery is a short drive, about
45 minutes on narrow country road by car. Parking is charged for the day and not to expensive.
When you enter monastery complex first you came across a park which has small shops that sell many local products like: honey, brandy, Christian icons, hand-made jewelry and famous local lake jewelry pearls and much more...Continuing our tour and walking to the monastery we came to the small bridge over the river Crn Drim (Black Drim),
from where you have two amazing post card views.
Set amidst lush
verdure where the River Crn Drim tumbles into the lake, the monastery of
St. Naum is a refuge of tranquility at the very southwestern corner of
the Macedonian Republic. The area around St. Naum monastery is among the
most beautiful along the shore of Lake Ohrid. Just before merging with the Lake Ohrid, River
Crn Drim widens in a small lake. Still inside the Saint Naum Monastery
complex, colorful covered motor boats sit waiting to whisk visitors over the
lake to see the springs of St. Naum. The water here is fed by Lake
Prespa and is astoundingly clear – at some points it is 3.5m deep and
still you can see the bottom as if it were swimming right before your
eyes.
The old church was built on a rock above the Lake with a wonderful view
of Lake Ohrid and the surrounding mountains. Later on the church was
completed with lodgings and a bell tower finishing the final look of the
current monastery. The monastery lodging compartments are now adapted
into a hotel. A traditional restaurant is also found on the location.
Tourists from all around the world that visit Macedonia, pick this
destination every year.
As with most Byzantine churches, St. Naum was chosen primarily for its
location – on a high, rocky outcropping over the lake, above deep
forests and life-giving springs of the river Crn Drim.
The main reason to take the boat trip (other than for a bit of
picturesque relaxation bobbing on the lake) is to witness the springs
bubbling up from the lake bed. Because of the water clarity it's
extremely easy to see. In some places calcification causes the rocks to
turn white – it's quite a sight. At the end of the lake is a small
chapel.
The charge for this trip is per boat, so if you wait for more people the price per person will become cheaper.
Little about the history...
The old church was built on a rock above the Lake with a wonderful view
of Lake Ohrid and the surrounding mountains. Later on the church was
completed with lodgings and a bell tower finishing the final look of the
current monastery. The monastery lodging compartments are now adapted
into a hotel. A traditional restaurant is also found on the location.
Tourists from all around the world that visit Macedonia, pick this
destination every year.
The original church was dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and
Gabriel. The church was built on this site in the 10th century as a
memorial of the Slavonic educator Saint Naum of Ohrid, the disciple of
Cyril and Methodius and the associate of Clement of Ohrid. The names of
St. Naum and St. Clement are praised because of their creation of the
Cyrillic alphabet. St. Naum was also buried in the church in the year of
910. St. Naum's monasteries of the Holy Archangels together with
Clement’s monastery of St. Pantheleimon in Ohrid are the earliest known
Slavonic monuments in the region of Ohrid. This represents another
important religious, cultural and tour attraction in this part of
Macedonia.
The monastery has been renewed and enlarged several times over the
centuries. While most of its iconostases and frescoes date from the 16th
and 17th century, earlier etchings in the Byzantine Greek vernacular
also remain. But numerous orthographical mistakes indicate that they
were written by Slavic-speaking local monks. Other inscriptions in the
church make up some of the oldest epigraphic evidence of Slavic
literacy. The icons of St. Naum are some of the best religious painting
achievements in the Balkans. They date from the first half of the 18th
century. The wood-carved iconostasis itself was made in 1711 by an
unknown artisan.
A peculiar element of St. Naum is located not on the inside of the
church but on the outside: the preponderance of multi-colored peacocks
strutting around and luxuriating in the grass. They are so gracious and
friendly, not scared of people at all. Posing for picture or climbing
all over the place, they are like home pets.
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