Lesok monastery

elevation / altitude

612 meters

distance

7.91 km from main square / Tetovo

visiting Lesok monastery

Guided tour, individual. Good asphlat road leads to the monastery, after you switch off Tetovo-Jazince road.

  about Lesok monastery

The Monastery of Lesok (Leshok/Lešok) with the churches of St. Atanasius and of the Holy Mother of God (Holy Virgin), from the 14^th century, is situated 8 km from Tetovo.
The oldest information about Lesok monastery comes from the first half of the 14th Century, 1326. The Lesok church is in the shape of a triconhos. There are three layers of frescoes on the walls from different periods. The bottom layer is from the time of the construction of the church, the second one is from the 17th century and the last layer is from 1879.
The Lesok church is dedicated to Saint Atanasie and was built by a monk Joanakie, later the first bishop of Dolen Polog, during the foundation of the first Polog eparchy, between 1348-1355. The Lesok monastery with the church of Sveta Bogorodica (Holy Mother), were renovated and converted into monastery in the early 19^th century by Kiril Pejcinovic. Before the 17^th century the Lesok monastery was restored by the bishop of Polog, Nikanor. Around 1698 the Lesok monastery was seriously damaged in a severe storm. The waters from the mountains flooded the Lesok monastery, and the monks abandoned it. Since then, and all the way to 1927, the Lesok monastery was in ruins.
The Lesok monastery's conchs were built with the arrival of the famous Macedonian educator Kiril Pejcinovic in 1818. In honor of the educator Kiril Pejcinovic, who is buried in its yard, this monastery hosts an International Meeting of Literary Translators.
The Lesok monastery, Saint Atanasius was bombed by Albanian rebels in the 2001 Macedonia conflict, but has since been rebuilt.