This Orthodox monastery (Бигорски Манастир/Bigorski Manastir, or Aziz Jovan Bigorski Manastırı in Turkish) is one of the most famous in the country, for its iconostasis and ossuary. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, it owes its epithet to the tuff stone(bigor in Slavonic) used to construct its buildings. Designed as a fortress, it backs onto Mount Bistra and enjoys fine views over the Radika valley. Legend has it that in 1020, the Bulgarian bishop Jovan (John) of Debar discovered an icon of St. John the Baptist floating in the river below and decided to build the complex here. The monastery was rebuilt in the ^18th and ^19th centuries and, after a fire in 2009, almost entirely rebuilt, with the exception of the ossuary and the main church. The latter houses the superb carved wooden iconostasis created in 1835 by the great master Petar Filipovski (1780-1854). From the Mijak community of Debar, renowned for its craftsmen, Filipovski worked on the Church of St. Saviour in Skopje and the Lesnovo monastery.

Mijak dancer and precious relics. The wall is composed of six horizontal bands. The first, at the bottom, is made up of panels decorated with animal and plant motifs. The second features large icons dominated by a sculpted eagle. The third is decorated with angels and bunches of grapes. The last three levels house smaller icons. The central section features a large cross surrounded by two dragons bearing in their jaws the icons of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. Among the details, note the representation of the dancer Salome (who asked for the head of St. John the Baptist), dressed here in a mijak costume, or the faces of Filipovski and his assistants. Below the church, the ossuary houses some of the most precious Christian relics in the Balkans, including those of St. John the Baptist, St. Lazarus of Bethany, St. Stephen, St. Nicholas and St. Clement of Ohrid. Pilgrims come here all year round. But the monastery comes alive especially on July 7 for the celebration of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and on September 10 and 11 for the beheading of St. John the Baptist. The monastery is home to around 25 monks, who run a drug treatment center and a store selling gourmet food and handicrafts.