"Monastery of St Gavril Lesnovski" a Lesnovo Travel Page by Pijlmans

Up in the mountain, south of the village Lesnovo is the Monastery of St Gavril Lesnovski, built in 1341.

The monastery is famous for housing one out of three iconostases made by the famous Macedonian woodcarvers Frckovski and the Filipovski brothers. The other two are found in the church of St Spas in Skopje and in the monastery St Jovan Bigorski in the Mavrovo National Park.

You can still see the mosaic floor of the 11th-century church on whose foundations the current church was built.

On the ceiling of the narthex you can see frescoes of the sun and the moon and 12 animals of people in the sky. Despite they clearly show the zodiac signs, the monk says that they are not designed to depict the zodiac signs.

You cannot enter the monastery if you are dressed inappropriately, but you can borrow trainers and skirts at the entrance to cover yourself.

The Monastery of St Gavril Lesnovski is geographically located east of the road between Kratovo and Probistip, but you have to head for Zletovo and there take the turning for Lesnovo and follow the road up the mountain. The views from this road are fantastic!