"Stenje at Lake Prespa" a Stenje Travel Page by Pijlmans

Lake Prespa, next to Lake Ohrid in the south-west of Macedonia, is the second largest lake of Macedonia. It must be one of the most multicultural lakes in the world, since Macedonia, Greece and Albania all own their part of the lake. The Galicica National Park separates both lakes.

Lake Prespa is located higher than Lake Ohrid, and it is therefore cooler at its beaches than at Lake Ohrid. The water from Prespa feeds Lake Ohrid, as you can witness at the springs near St Naum at lake Ohrid. The lake is not a lot deeper than 50 m, and therefore the lake itself can get comfortably warm, with its sandy shallow beaches more suitable for children than Lake Ohrid. The east shore of Lake Prespa has hotels and a campsite.

The legend narrates that a town once stood where now Lake Prespa can be found. The son of the king of the town met a wood nymph of mesmerizing beauty, and he fell in love with her. Although he begged her to become his wife, she refused because she could not marry a mortal being without bad consequences for the groom. Desperately, he kidnapped her and locked her up until she married him. At that moment, the heavens opened and it rained until the town and all its citizen had drowned. The moral of this story being that when a woman says "no", she really means "no"....

On the east side of Lake Prespa, are two villages, called Stenje and Konjsko. Stenje has the beautiful beaches shown on the pictures. In 2007, the asphalt road between the two villages stopped shortly after Stenje.

You need a 4WD to get to Konsjko, or not to be afraid to drive your normal car on unpaved roads. Alternatively, you can walk to Konsjko, it is about 8-10 km.

Between the two villages is the small Church of St Ilija, that you can visit after a short walk through the woods from the road.

From the village Konsjko, you can ask one of the locals to take you by boat to the uninhabited island Golem Grad in Lake Prespa. Golem Grad means "Large City" but the island is also called Zmiski Ostrov, meaning "Snake Island", and not without reason!

See my Golem Grad page for more info on the island.