Naum! Naum! Devouring Macedonia's History & Scenery

Established in 905 AD, the Monastery of St. Naum is picturesquely sited on a hill above Lake Ohrid

We wanted to visit the historic monastery of St. Naum, perched on a hill above Lake Ohrid, and just a few hundred meters from the border with Albania. We'd seen boat rides that offered up a cruise to St. Naum (along with a handful of other sights along Ohrid's shores). However, we decided to drive the 45 minutes there (and to the other sights we wanted to see), instead. Perhaps we could end the day with a sunset cruise on Lake Ohrid to get our time on the lake? The main reason we chose to drive was because tours often give you a limited time at a site. Plus, we'd be seeing it with the rest of the crowd on our boat (and any of the many other similar boat tours that happened to land at the same time). I much prefer to experience a historical sight with as few others as possible, to take advantage of the silence and commune with history.

The church inside the monastery grounds is the same beautiful, brick and stone Byzantine style of many in Ohrid

We left relatively early in the morning and drove south along the winding, but fairly well maintained, road on the shore of Lake Ohrid. In fact, when we arrived at the parking lot, our car was one of the first in the lot. Woo-hoo - success! With no crowds to follow, it took us a minute or two to figure out which small paved roads led to the actual monastery, as there are other tiny churches on site, restaurants, and a hotel, too. When we walked through the gateway of the monastery, we saw we had been preceded by a small group of a half dozen Asian tourists. We had to wait a minute or two for them to finish their Instagram selfies before we could take pictures of the beautiful, brick and stone monastery shining in the morning sun. I figured my photos of the thousand year old church would look better without preening, would-be Instagram stars in the foreground! Our patience was rewarded, and we were able to experience and photograph it for a few moments by ourselves.

Beautiful interior of St. Naum - we lucked into a service here in the main chapel that was taking place

Next, we headed inside in the church, paying our roughly $2-$3 entry fee to the friendly, talkative monk at the cashier stand. We stepped through the doorway and immediately heard a service was going on. There were about eight worshipers standing in front of the altar reverently, heads bowed, as two monks alternately chanted and sang the words of their liturgy. Two short, octagonal towers of brick rise up from the church, and from their tiny windows, the interior was dimly illuminated. The room where the service was going on was pierced by shafts of sunlight high above, cutting through the dimness. All around us, the stone walls were painted with dark, medieval frescoes of biblical scenes. The monastery was small, but divided into several tiny, separate rooms. We listened for a few moments, then backed up to explore the rooms closer to the entrance. The frescoes seemed to illustrate stories from the Bible. I believe one was David and Goliath, as a much smaller man was perched upon a fallen giant of a man, plunging his sword or knife into him. The people of the Middle Ages did not understand the concept of anachronism, so both figures were dressed and armed as if they were medieval soldiers. A side room had what appeared to be a bed covered in red velvet. We found out later from the friendly monk that the bed covered the tomb of St. Naum.

The tomb of St. Naum lies beneath this red velvet bed - visitors are encouraged to listen for the saint’s heartbeat

Visitors are encouraged to kneel on the floor, and place their ear on the velvet surface. If they listen carefully, and are truly devout, they will hear the heart of the venerable saint, still beating beneath them. Both Jenny and I tried, but neither of us were able to experience the miracle, sad to say. As always, the frescoes were beautiful, but after examining all of them, we were drawn back to the room with the service. We were visiting North Macedonia over its Orthodox Easter, which was only three days away. As quietly and respectfully as possible, both of us took short video clips of portions of the service. The call and response of the monks singing was very soulful and beautiful. We were alarmed, though, when the monk from the cashier booth locked the door to the small church behind us. Not knowing why or how long we would have to be in there, we let him know through the window that we wished to be let out. He smiled and opened the door for us, then quickly closed it behind us, locking it.

One of the many painted medieval frescoes on the interior walls of St. Naum

Outside, the world had changed. Three busloads of Macedonian high school kids had arrived during the 20 minutes or so we had been inside. A number of other tour groups also thronged the courtyard. Wow! We were so glad we'd left early and got here to experience St. Naum in the peace and quiet for awhile. We wandered around for a while, exploring other bits of the monastery, but everywhere was crowded with people. Eventually, the monk opened the door to the church back up, and people immediately lined up to enter. We decided to sit on a bench and watch the spectacle. We took pictures of the peacocks wandering the grounds, laughing at their squawk -- obviously the inspiration for the movie "Up" and its towering, prehistoric, bird character, Kevin. After awhile, the crowd died down a bit, so we ventured back inside the church. There were still lots of people in the room where the service was being held, so we had no more opportunities for photos.

Peacocks roam the courtyard of the monastery, fluffing their beautiful feathers for visitors

Once we felt we had fully experienced St. Naum, we walked back out through the gateway. We noticed below us that there were no tour boats tied up to the stone pier. So, all of these tourists had arrived by cars or buses -- the boat tours we had been considering hadn't begun to arrive, yet. We descended the hill and walked out onto the stone pier to get some panoramas of the monastery looming above us and the beautiful lake and surrounding scenery. Next, we decided to hire one of the small boat rides nearby. They are rowed (not motorized) and take about 20-30 minutes to do a loop over the spring-fed creek. The water is crystal clear, and you can see the bottom as if looking through a pane of glass. The water for the springs drains from Lake Prespa, not far away, but at a higher altitude. It is filtered through the granite of the mountain and emerges in the creek like liquid glass. And it isn't just a trickle! You can see the current of the creek as it empties into Lake Ohrid, and the water is disturbed by white caps for about twenty yards from the pressure of the creek feeding into the lake.

Some of the clearest water I have ever seen is in a nearby, spring-fed creek

Since there were just two of us, the boat ride was a tad more expensive (about $10 each), but it was worth it. The guide was informative and very considerate. Whenever one of us leaned out to take photos, he would stop rowing so we could get a better shot of the undisturbed, crystalline waters. The water looked amazing, with a bottom of sand or vegetation. He pointed out where you could see bubbles from springs rising up from the sandy bottom, percolating like a sandy cauldron, though the water was icy cold. It was a nice relaxing row through the marsh-like vegetation. We saw ducks and other waterfowl paddling through the water. At times, the tableau beneath the water looked like a jigsaw puzzle, with a bewildering variety of shades of green and russet brownish-red, all accented here and there by the reflection of the gorgeous sunshine off the surface.

You can hire a boat to row you through the creek and admire the beautiful natural setting and the waters

The monastery of St. Naum is a big tourist destination for this area of North Macedonia. There is a long row of souvenir stalls and cafes extending about a hundred yards back towards the parking lot. We browsed through the offerings, but didn't find much we were really interested in. A small market had the coldest soft drinks we'd found yet in the country, though. Most of the "refrigerated" cases of drinks we'd encountered so far barely chill it above room temperature. A cold drink was a savored blessing! We returned to the parking lot and stopped in our tracks. It seemed the whole world had arrived since our vehicle was the first car to park there! The lot seemed nearly full with automobiles and tour buses, though I imagine during the summer and high tourist season it is even more packed.

The monastery is ringed by mountains and Lake Ohrid - a spectacular setting for monks to contemplate God

We drove a short way back towards Ohrid to our next stop, the floating museum, aka The Bay of Bones. This is a reconstructed version of a paleolithic village that archeologists discovered decades ago. The tiny village was built on a wooden platform about 20 yards offshore on top of log pilings driven deep into the lake bottom. The village is even mentioned in the writings of Herodotus, the famous Greek historian and "Father of History." Through study of the excavations on the lake bottom, underwater archeologists were able to determine quite a bit about how the Stone Age people lived in this village built just off-shore. The best guess is that this site was for defense, but we really can't be certain. The parking lot for the Bay of Bones is high above the village, and we took a few scenic pictures as we descended towards the reconstructed village.

The Bay of Bones - a reconstructed Stone Age village that was built onto the surface of the lake

We walked across the bridge leading out to the village and immediately began exploring the various homes. Most were rectangular, but a couple were round, with seating all around the edges. It looked like they'd been constructed to appear to be places for meetings or gatherings. There were only a small handful of other visitors, so it was nice to pace around and imagine what it would have been like to live in this type of settlement. I joked that it was nice to experience this in the peace and quiet without our three busloads of teenagers. Jenny glared at me and said something about jinxing us. Sure enough, moments later, more than a hundred high school kids clomped across the bridge and began taking selfies as they explored the site. Jenny and I fled the village like it was on fire, and climbed the pathway which led up to what was supposed to be a Roman site.

“Scuba Archeologists” have excavated the lake bottom and learned much about what life would have been like in this village on the lake’s surface

The descriptions I read said the hilltop site had remains of a Roman Auxiliary fort. The walls had been partially reconstructed, and you could actually walk along their wide top to follow the outline of the fortifications. Roman auxiliaries were units of non-citizens recruited from the people they had conquered. They were organized and armed similarly to the legionaries (which were citizens). Upon completion of service in the Auxiliaries, a soldier was granted Roman citizenship -- a valuable thing. Otherwise, the soldiers were very similar to Rome's famous legionaries, and typically constructed fortifications wherever they were based. There were no signs or exhibits at the site -- just a sprawling outline of a stone walled perimeter on a hilltop beneath a bright sun. The view around the lake was stunning, and I could see why this spot was chosen.

The partially reconstructed remains of a Roman Auxiliary fort atop a hill overlooking the Bay of Bones

Once we were done exploring the fortifications, we returned to the village, whose ghostly defenders had apparently repelled the invasion of high school kids. We resumed our own wanderings among the wood and reed buildings, and then retired to the visitors center to check out the tiny museum. It housed some actual relics that archeologists had recovered from the lake bottom when excavating. I thought it was very interesting that qualified scuba divers could actually sign up to visit the ruins of the Stone Age village under water. I have to admit, I had yet to see scuba archeological tours before, though the idea makes perfect sense. It was an interesting site.

Although no one will likely visit Macedonia just for the Bay of Bones, it was an interesting sight well worth the visit

We returned to Ohrid and queried the excellent and very helpful staff at our hotel, Villa Dea, about our plans for tomorrow's day trip. They confirmed for us that one of our possible destinations is really only practical in high season. However, they helped us plot out on a map our route to see the other things we'd planned. We finished off the day with a sunset boat ride on Lake Ohrid. It was nice to see the town and surrounding mountains from the water, though as the sun went down, it became quite chilly. We toughed it out as long as we could on the upper deck before finally retiring below as it began to get dark. Once again, our day had been a beautiful mix of great scenery and interesting history. I was struck by the sheer number of sights that had relics from Prehistory through Ancient Time and up to the Middle Ages. People have lived in Macedonia for a long, long time. I was beginning to understand why!

We capped off the day with a few beers onSunset Cruise on Lake Ohrid

Another look at the preserved medieval frescoes on the walls of St. Ohrid

I loved the way the sunbeams pierced the dim interior of the church