MALIGRAD ISLAND

This uninhabited island of 5 ha (Ishulli i Maligradit) is part of the Prespa National Park. Surrounded by a circular cliff with many caves, it has the Slavic name of "little town". In the southern part, there is the small rock church of the Mother of God (Kisha Shën Mërisë). Founded in 1369 by the Serbian lord Kesar Novak, it is built in a rocky cavity that served as a hermitage. It has beautiful frescoes on its exterior and interior walls, including a remarkable representation of the Last Judgment and portraits of Kesar Novak and his Greek wife. The island also has a beautiful sandy beach and the ruins of an early Christian church. There are two other islands in the vicinity. On the large lake Prespa, in Northern Macedonia, the island of Golem Grad ("big city") extends over 18 ha. Uninhabited, it is nicknamed "the island of snakes" and houses the remains of two medieval churches. On the small lake Prespa, in Greece, the island of Agios Achillios (Saint Achilles) has an area of 8 ha. It has about twenty inhabitants and six medieval churches, some of them well preserved. It is connected by a 700 m long footbridge to the peninsula where the border with Albania passes. Agios Achillios seems to have been home to the city of Prespa, capital of the first Bulgarian Empire of Tsar Samuel in the late 10th century. Today, there are many birds, including the curly pelican, but also an endemic species of "dwarf cow", close to the Asian water buffalo.