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The ancient city of Ohrid, situated along the coast of the magnificent Lake Ohrid, is undoubtedly the most beautiful and most attractive Macedonian town, a pearl of old architecture and a treasury of valuable cultural and historical monuments. Located on the shores of Lake Ohrid, the town of Ohrid is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Its ancient name was Lichnidos, which was used to refer to the settlement of Ohrid and the lake. Built mostly between the 7th and the 19th century, it has the most ancient Slav monastery (St. Pantelejmon) and more than 800 icons of Byzantine style, painted between the 11th and the end of the 14th century, which are considered to be, after those of the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, the most important collection in the world. |
| Ohrid could literally be called a city-museum - another typical mixture
of the western and the oriental, a city with special architecture, and
modern, luxurious tourist facilities. One should have heard of the long
tradition in making the famous Ohrid pearl, as well. Ohrid is a town which
has always been of interest to every visitor to Macedonia. It is Macedonia's
main tourist center, with first class hotels, modern tourist objects of
international fame, camp cites, company hotels and holiday homes, as well
as a large number of ancillary tourist, hotel
and gathering facilities.
There are three tectonic lakes in Macedonia: Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Lake Dojran. Lake Ohrid is the biggest and certainly the most beautiful of them. It lies 695 m. above sea level, covering an area of 349 sq. km. Its extraordinary clean and clear waters (the transparency of the water is 2 l, 5 meters) and primordial beauty look breathtakingly fascinating and shunning to both the passers-by and numerous domestic and foreign tourists who continuously visit this lake. |
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The ancient city of Ohrid and the Ohrid region are recorded in UNESCO's directory of worlds cultural heritage and have been placed under environmental protection as an outstanding environment. The lake is fed by cold springs filtered through limestone, water that flows from the near higher Lake Prespa, and is one of the oldest and deepest in the world, full of living fossils - trout and other species found nowhere else. The delicious Ohrid trout, an extremely high quality fish served in quite a few hotels and catering facilities throughout Macedonia and abroad, is also a produce of the lake waters. The high mountain Galicica proudly rises between lakes Ohrid and Prespa, its imposing posture appearing to look as an eternal guardian of the two lakes. |
| In the 3rd century the town is mentioned as Lihnidos, whereas in the year of 879, for the first time it appears as Ohrid. In the 9th century, the Christianity spread among the southern Slavs from Ohrid. Here, Ss. Climent and Naum of Ohrid, continued the education mission of the Salonika brothers Sts. Cyril and Methodius. It was here, where St. Climent Ohridski, laid the foundations of the first Slav university and established the Archbishopric of Ohrid. At the same time the Ohrid painting school has been formed. The frescos and the icons of that time are of great cultural importance to Macedonia. |  |
| Ohrid has extraordinary cultural and historical monuments. In 10th and 11th centuries it was the capital of the Macedonian Tsar Samoil. The walls of his 16 meters high fortress still rise above the city, where today concerts, operas, and plays are given within them each summer. The remains of the old classical theater from the 2nd century BC are situated under Samoil's fortress. There is also the Polyconhous Basilica with its variable mosaics dating from the 5th century AD. |
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| One of the frescoes consists of three separate parts. The lowest one
displays the images of three saints - from left to right, St.
Nikola, St. Clement of Ohrid, and St. Konstantin Kavasila (archbishop
of Ohrid). The part in the middle shows biblical pictures. The wedding
of Virgin Mary and Joseph is shown on the first one. An interesting detail
is that the face of Virgin Mary is painted smaller than the face of Joseph.
This is the way the 13th century artist hinted that Virgin Mary is younger
than Joseph.
In the middle section of the fresco, on its rigthis a depiction of the Annunciation (Blagovestie) in which angel Gabriel (Gavril) tells Mary that she is pregnant and will give birth to Jesus Christ, the son of God. The upper part of the fresco is devoted to the grief upon Christ's death (Pieta). This fresco along with the one from St. Pantelejmon monastery in Skopje is not only of great religious importance. These frescoes are also interesting from history of art point of view. The images of people with feelings and a "body", in pain and grief over the lost Jesus Christ, images which give an impression of reality are quite different from the lifeless images dominating the Byzantium art during the middle ages. This style is similar to what appeared a century and a half later during the Renaissance age in Italy. |
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In addition to that, above the fresco shown on the left, depicting the death of St. Mary with Jesus standing above her dead body holding her soul in the form of an infant, and under the twelve apostoles gathered arount the table, on tthe two sides around the window the four human races are depicted, namely the white (Caucasian), black (African), yellow (Asiatic) and red (Native American) race, two hundred years before the discovery of America by Columbus. |
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| The Church of St. John of Kaneo from the 13th century, shown bellow, stands beautifully on the cliff overhanging Lake Ohrid. Some of the scenes from the award winning Macedonian film "Before the Rain" , (nominated for Oscar '95 and the winner of Venice's Golden Lion), were shot at St. John of Kaneo. |  |
| The famous Cathedral St. Sophia (Holy
Wisdom) containing magnificent frescoes (10th century) is located in the
old city center. The cathedral was the seat of the Archbishopric
of Ohrid for several centuries and is the oldest surviving church in
Ohrid. Unfortunately, the interior has preserved little of its original
splendor due to the fact, that St. Sophia was probably transformed into
a mosque in the second half of the 15th century. The unique gallery of
paintings from the period between the 11th and 14th centuries, it is one
of the most important medieval monuments in Ohrid and Macedonia.
Near St. Sophia, the churches of Holy Virgin (13th century), and of St. Nicholas "Bolnicki" (14th century)are situated. |
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On August 4, 1961, a concert held in St. Sophia inaugurated the renowned
Ohrid Summer Festival of music and drama. Today, the Ohrid Summer Festival
still attracts large number of famous artists from all over the world to
participate each year, from July 12 to August 20. The most distinguished
soloists and ensembles have played here in the past few decades. Large
orchestras and theater companies perform in front of the church's magnificent
western facade, where a temporary stage is erected every summer. Smaller
concerts are held inside the St. Sophia church.
The Izida of Ohrid is the annual award given to the most distinguished artistic performance at the Ohrid Summer Festival. |
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 One of the most famous frescoes in the Monastery is that of St. Methodius and his students; it includes St. Naum (fisrt from left), St. Clement (second from left), as well as St. Sava (third from left), the founder of the Orthodox Christianity among the Serbs. |
| Ohrid is a very important cultural center in the Republic of Macedonia.
Apart from the Ohrid Summer Festival, it is also a host to the Balkan Folklore
Festival, the Festival of Macedonian Old Town Songs, as well as to the
participants of the Macedonian Language, Literature, and Culture Seminar
for more than 25 years.
Some 15 kilometers away from Ohrid, the world-wide-known poetic town of Struga is also situated on the shores of beautiful Lake Ohrid. |
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