(Almost) All Saints: Sveti Andrea Traditional Cache
(Almost) All Saints: Sveti Andrea
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Difficulty:
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(Almost) All Saints: Sveti Andreja (English: St. Andrew Church)
The area around Lake Matka, a half-hour drive west from Skopje, is a very popular place for weekend outings for citizens of Skopje. Lake Matka and its surroundings represent a rear pearl of the nature, offering to the visitors a unique mix of natural beauty, cultural and historical sights, sport thrills, gastronomical enjoyment and much more… The Matka Lake twists between imposing cliffs, offering an opportunity for hiking, boating or climbing. Rear and endemic species of flora and fauna can be seen only here. Numerous caves hide their secrets in their depths. Few national restaurants offer a wide palette of traditional Macedonian meals. There are many reasons (and several caches too) to spend a day here… The breathtaking beauty of the nature, rough and gentle at the same time, will conquer your eyes and your hearth.
Lake Matka in 1919
One of a special features of this area are numerous sacral (religious) objects dating mostly from XIII - XV century. Such a concentration of monasteries, churches and crosses on such a small area is very unique and represents an answer to a strong orthodox feelings of Macedonian people during the ages.
My intention is to show geocachers this dimension of Macedonian cultural and religious past. I hope you will enjoy that laud silence and cold gloom which rule inside the churches, and a silent dignity of the saints watching you…
This cache is one of few in the series of (Almost) All Saints, located around the Matka Lake.
Lake Matka and St. Andrew from the cliffs
St. Andrew's Monastery is located on Lake Matka. This monastery was built in 1389 and is painted with frescos of a great artistic importance. Monastery of St. Andrew was built by the youngest son of King Vukashin, Prince Adriash, brother of King Marko. The frescoes were painted by Metropolitan Jovan. The frescoes of the monastery of St. Andrew have specific style and their iconography differs from other medieval sacral monuments in Macedonia. The painter was released of the influence of the Byzantine iconography and he painted upright figures of holy warriors and evangelists in full size, which was a step forward in solving the problems and perspectives of figure arrangement on a limited space. Between the first and second zone are busts of saints and monks. In the second zone of the frescoes were painted sufferings of Christ, The Last Supper, while the west wall painting of the Assumption of the Virgin. In the third zone of the frescoes are represented Great Feasts, the birth of Christ in the apse. In southern apse is painted Crucifixion and the Descent into Hell.
St. Andrew Church
Holy Warrior
How to get there and conquer the cache?
You can reach Lake Matka and this Monastery by bus, by car or a bike. The city bus (number 60) runs from central Skopje via Saray to the Matka dam (check the schedule on the JSP website, http://www.jsp.com.mk/VozenRed.aspx). By car or bike: go west from Skopje and turn left across a new bridge toward the municipality of Saray. Continue toward the village GLUMOVO. Behind the village Glumovo the road splits in two. Turn downhill left and continue through the village Dolna Matka about 2 km. During weekends and festivals the place is crowded by people and cars, so there can problem to park the car. However, if you come early in the morning it will be no problem to park.
It takes about 20-30 minutes light walk to this place and this cache, so even geocachers of age 100 can do it!!!
The cache is a small transparent plastic container. The cache is placed about 100 meters from the Monastery. Please, keep in mind that the place is horribly crowded during weekends, so be extremely stealth when logging! The GPS signal in quite poor because of the cliffs, so it could be better to use the spoiler photo.
Sources: Wikipedia, other internet sources. Photos: Internet and original (by Galejnik)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng gur tebhaq, arkg gur onfr bs gur fznyy gerr (oruvaq gur fgbar jnyy), pbirerq jvgu n fznyy fgbar.