MONASTERY OF SLIVNICA (МОНАСТИР СЛИВНИЦА)

Located at 1,200 m above sea level, this seventeenth century monastery is dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God (Roždestvo na Presveta Bogorodica). It enjoys a beautiful environment on the flanks of Mount Baba (2,601 m above sea level) with a superb panorama on the lake, and its Roman catholicon (main church) is richly decorated with beautifully preserved frescoes. The monastery was built in three phases between 1607 and 1645. It was founded by the Bulgarian clergy thanks to donations from several families in the region. The complex no longer hosts a monastic community since the nineteenth century.

Catholic icon. The interior walls and exterior façade are fully covered with frescoes made between 1607 and 1645. These works are the work of two great painters with distinctly different styles. The first, which could be the great master and saint Bulgarian Pimen Zografski (1540-1620), worked on the altar and vaults. The name of the second, a Nikola, appears in an inscription from the west entrance to the side of a representation of the Mother of God with Christ. All the frescoes describe three cycles: The Great Orthodox Holidays, the Passion and the Paraboles of Christ. The theme of the Lamb of God (see St. George's Church of Kurbinovo) is also represented. A great deal is also given to the main donors of the monastery. Among them, a certain Michel Petkov of Monastir (Bitola) had his son Kupen represented prematurely in 1599 in ceremonial clothing in the northern part of the abbey near the altar. Around the altar are the portraits of the evangelizers of the Slavic Cyrille of Thessaloniki, Clément and Naum d 'Ohrid, Gorazd of Bulgaria, Angelar d' Ohrid. On the edge of a window of the south wall, there is a fairly rare representation of Sisoès the Great (anachoret of the Egyptian century) lamenting on Alexander the Great skeleton. Similar frescoes exist in Greece in the monasteries of the Great Laure of Mount Athos and Varlaam at Meteors. The church also counts a beautiful iconostasis whose royal doors and large icons also date from the seventeenth century.

Annex buildings. The monastery was a great theological center of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In the eighteenth century, a serious conflict between the Greek and Bulgarian clergy. Several buildings were burned. If the church itself was spared, the precious library was completely destroyed by the flames. New buildings and a bell tower were rebuilt in the nineteenth century. An important restoration took place between 1994 and 1998 with the transformation of certain buildings in retirement homes and accommodation for the faithful and tourists. The complex houses a source of considered miraculous water next to the church. The place was also the presumed place of several appearances of the Mother of God since the First World War.

Beach. And to reward such efforts, nothing like a swim on the beach of Slivnica below the village. Long and sandy, it's the most pleasant of Prespa Lake.