From Skopje: Bitola and Ohrid Day Tour

We start the tour with pick up you from your accommodation, continue the trip in way to visit Bitola, where you will have a sightseeing tour of Bitola - visit the church of St. Dimitri. Then we just have a quick glance at Yeni Mosque, built in 1559 which is now an art gallery, then the Yahdar-Kadi Mosque and the Isak Mosque. At the heart of the town is the Clock Tower. The River Dragor runs through the town. Sirok Sokak (a long pedestrian area) is renowned for the beautiful old houses that belong to the 19th-century architecture. Bitola is a town of consulates, also the town where the Manaki brothers, famous for their pioneering work with the camera, opened their Studio of Art Photography in 1905. In honor of their work in photography, and later, cinematography, the first international film camera festival in the world was started here in 1979 and is held every September. After this, we go to the ancient Macedonian town of Heraclea Lyncestis. It was the first major town established in the rich Pelagonia valley in the 4th century BC.
Continue the trip to Ohrid - starting a tour with visit of the church of St. Sophia which dates from the 11th century and then we go up to the Roman amphitheater which dates back to the 3rd century BC. Afterwards we continue walking to the Icon Gallery, which shows a range of some of the most famous and valuable icons in the world right after the ones on Athos and in Russia. In the vicinity of the gallery is the church of St. Clement’s Church of the Holy Mother of God Most Glorious which dates from the 13th century and possesses some of the most beautiful and valuable frescoes from the 13th century not only in our country but in the Balkans as well.

After that we carry on walking to Tsar Samoil’s Fortress which was named after the first tsar of the Macedonian Slavs, who having conquered Byzantium, brought most of Macedonia under his rule. Then we walk to Plaoshnik, the place where we visit the newly built St. Clement’s Monastery Church which is dedicated to St. Clement, the patron of Ohrid, and St. Panteleimon and which stands beside the original site of St. Clement’s University, the first university of the Macedonian Slavs started in the 9th century AD. Inside the church you can also see the tomb with St. Clement’s relics.

Beside the church you can see the foundations of the 5th-century basilica with beautifully preserved mosaic floors and some swastikas also discovered on the floors. From here we head towards the Church of St. Jovan at Kaneo, which was built at the end of the 13th century, and is one of the most frequently visited churches in Ohrid because of its beautiful location on the cliffs directly above the lake. After this we go back to the town on foot. Another option is to return to the town by boat and at the same time to make a tour of the lake providing you with a great view of the town. After a short brake leaving for Skopje.