Tourism in Macedonia

Monastery of St. Jovan (John) Bigorski

Monastery of St. Jovan (John) Bigorski (Macedonian: Свети Јован Бигорски/St.Jovan Bigorski) is an important Macedonian monastery located in western part of the Republic of Macedonia, near the road connecting the towns of Debar and Gostivar.

The monastery church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. According to the monastery's 1833 chronicle, it was built in 1020 by Archbishop Jovan. The Ottomans destroyed the monastery in the XVI century. The monastery was restored in 1743 by the monk Ilarion, who also built several monk cells. Later, in the period from 1812 to 1825 the monastery was expanded by archimandrite Arsenius. Among the donors there is also a mention of a monk Iov, recognized by some researchers as the future educator Joakim Krcovski. One of the most valuable treasures of the monastery is the iconostasis created by Petre Filipovski Garkata and Makarie Frckovski from the nearby village of Gari. This iconostasis is considered one of the most beautiful and most valuable wood-carved iconostasis in the Orthodox religion. Another valuable monastery treasure is an icon dating from 1020 with supposedly miraculous healing power.