This hike of 12 km with 660 m ascent starts at the Monastery of St Nikita (St Nicetas) near the village Gornjane and takes you to the remote Monastery of St Bogorodica and the Church of St George in the village Banjane. In addition, the trail passes the small church of St Spas located on a remote site on the mountain.
The village Gornjane is about 19 km north from the center of Skopje, at the foot of the Skopska Crna Gora (Black Mountain) mountain range.
The Church of St Nikita was built around the year 1300 by King Milutin on the foundations of an earlier church and was renovated in 1484. The iconostasis was painted in 1846. The Church of St Nikita is described in more detail in the guidebook “Byzantine Heritage of Skopje” by http://haemus.org.mk/. There is a stone in the church that supposedly fulfills wishes. If you stand on the stone and turn 3 times, bow, say the prayer that is displayed under the icon and make a wish, it will come true or you will get better when sick. The power allegedly is not in the stone itself, but in the relics of the saint that are under the stone. Before the entrance of the church there are several spolia (repurposed building material) used as pavement. The monastery grounds are well maintained, there were some chickens running around and it is a pleasant place to spend some time.
From here you can also see the Church of St Trojica (St Trinity) a bit further downhill. It’s not included in this hike, but we visited the Church of St Trojica afterwards. Close to the church of St Trojica there is also a spring/fountain that dates back to around 1800.
From the St Nikita Monastery you go uphill until you reach the Monastery of St Bogorodica.
In 2022 I also passed this monastery during another hike starting from Banjane.
In 2023 local people were working on the renovation of the monastery. We were invited to have a coffee with the people who were working there. On the monastery grounds there is statue for Slavkovich Milosh (1930-2016) and there are pictures of him in the church as well. The story goes that as a boy he was living in a nearby village but could not speak. When he came to the St Bogorodica Monastery he suddenly could speak! When his parents came to take him back home, he stopped talking again. After that he moved to the monastery where he lived his whole life. I hope I remembered the story correctly!
Theoretically you can stay in this monastery, but mind that there is no electricity or a modern restroom.
Just after the monastery there is the possibility to shorten the hike by about 3 km if you follow the dirt road to the right (see the map).
You reach the highest point of the hike after about 5.5 km and the Church of St Spas after about 8 km.
After that there is a pleasant trail back to Banjane with some nice views. In Banjane you pass the Church of St George (1548). In 1845 new fresco paining was performed and an iconostasis was made. The Church of St George unfortunately was closed and may only be open on weekend mornings from 07.00-09.00 (according to the guidebook “Byzantine Heritage of Skopje” by http://haemus.org.mk/) or only on Sunday mornings at 06.00-10.00 according to some locals.
A small trail leads you back uphill to the Monastery St Nikita.
From there we drove to the spring/fountain from 1800 and the Church of St Trojica which also was closed.
It was a pleasant walk, the monasteries make it interesting as well. Too bad the old church of St George was closed. I would rate this hike 3.5 out of 5 stars.
You can view and download the GPS track of this hike here: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/gornjane-banjane-st-nikita-st-bogorodica-st-george-144033371
PS: Note that the original GPS track that we were following also visited the remote Monastery “Blagovestenie na Presveta Bogorodica” after the Bogorodica Monastery, see https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/sv-nikita-blagovestenie-sv-spas-124028267#. We did not include that part of the trail because we could not see a clear trail and we decided it was too hot to go “freestyle”.
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