Манастирски и верски туризам

The East Planning Region has an abundance of monasteries and churches which are important cultural heritage from various periods. Many of them house masterpiece paintings, icons, architecture and iconostases, etc. The men’s and women’s monastic communities have seen an increase in their ranks in the last few years.

The development of monastic tourism in the East Planning Region depends on tourists’ interests to visit monasteries, but also on the willingness of monks to receive them. Monasteries welcome tourists who come with religious motives or tourists who appreciate cultural heritage. However, the monks’ lives and order cannot be interrupted at any one time. Currently there is a relatively small number of monasteries with active monastic life, such as: the Lesnovo monastery of St. Archangel Gabriel – a male monastery, St. Spiridon – a female monastery, and St. Archangel Michael in Berovo – a female monastery. In the other renowned monasteries there are events to mark religious holidays, with lunches together with the faithful. There are no records of organized accommodation for tourists in these monasteries.

This type of tourism can be combined with other types of tourism, i.e. organized visits to other cultural monuments. In the vicinity of the East Planning Region there are several important and attractive monasteries that are located on the territory of other regions, so in this sense it would be good to consider a route that would involve several monasteries in different regions.

During the workshops organized during the development of the Study and the Strategy for tourism development of the EPR, many of the participants, representatives of the municipalities in the East Planning Region, said that monastic tourism has great development potential in this region.