This is a very nice hike of 13 km and 570 m ascent.
Tose Proeski (1981-2007) was a famous Macedonian singer who grew up in Krushevo, the highest mountain town in Macedonia. He died in a tragic car accident.
The Monastery St Preobrazhenie (Holy Transfiguration) was one of his favorite places and he helped building the monastery. Another place that he loved was a nearby hill, where he once told his father that one day he would build a cross there. After his unfortunate death, a steel cross was made in his honor. The cross is 33 meters high, symbolic for the years of Jesus Christ.
We parked the car at the foot of this hill. It’s only a 15 minute ride from Krushevo. The first 500 m are a pretty steep ascent along a trail that is a bit overgrown, sometimes with thorny bushes. You can easily walk around them, just walk toward the Macedonian flag on top of the hill.
Soon you reach an asphalt road that takes you to the Cross of Christ (Hristov Krst). From there you follow the asphalt road to the St Preobrazhenie Monastery. The monastery was closed when we walked past it in the morning. After the hike we went back to the monastery by car, and the monastery was open. Apparently the monastery is usually more often opened in the afternoon compared to mornings, so it may make sense to do this hike in the opposite direction to increase the chance to find the monastery open.
We had a chat with the uncle of Tose, who was at the monastery when we visited. The church is beautifully fresco painted and there are memorials as well as a mural of Tose Proeski. In 2024 construction works were still ongoing for the lodging houses and it was not possible to stay in the monastery.
It is a very pleasant 4×4 path from the Monastery to the Stara Musica peak, with good views.
When we were descending from the Stara Musica peak, we noticed a herd of sheep and shepherd dogs. This usually means bad news because the dogs can be aggressive, as it is their job to protect the sheep from bears, wolves and innocent hikers. We thought we had made contact with the shepherd, who usually makes sure that his dogs don’t attack. However, although we were still quite far away, the shepherd dogs (12 of them!!) suddenly started running towards us. Even though we started to walk back, the dogs managed to surround us with aggressive barking and came very close. This continued for what felt a couple of hours, until the shepherd fired his gun into the air (!!!) after which the dogs settled down. The shepherd came to us, collapsed and apologized that he came to us so late…He just had hip surgery! Another scary dog encounter in the Macedonian mountains…
If you want to prolong the hike, you can continue walking to the place called “Krstovi”, were there are some crosses (see https://zelenaberza.com.mk/simeon-stojkovski-chovekot-koj-so-svoi-racze-napravi-svetilishte-na-vrv-na-bushova-planina-2/). If you walk to Krstovi and back, this will add about 10 km and 450 m ascent to the hike. We visited Krstovi during another hike starting at the village Pusta Rek a few days later, but that trail was very badly overgrown. There seems to be a better alternative to visit Krstovi from the village Pusta Reka as well, but this route has not been walked by myself!
Although on the map the ascent and descent of the current hike look very close to each other, the scenery and views during the second half of the hike are very different, which makes this hike very enjoyable overall.
On our way back to Krushevo we stopped at the Sliva monument, a symbol of the heroism and self-sacrifice of the Macedonian insurgents during the defense of the Krushevo Republic on August 12, 1903. On this date and location (Sliva or Plum Hill) 40 fighters of the rebellion fought a ‘last stand’ battle against 3,000 advancing Ottoman soldiers, in an effort to act as a final defense of the fleeing women and children in the town of Krushevo below. Each of the rebel fighters was ultimately killed by the Ottoman forces. In 1963, a 5 m tall stone monument was built on the site of the battle. On the monument an inscription reads: “For the freedom and endurance of the 40 fallen heroes of Ilinden”.
Despite the frightening moment with the shepherd dogs this was a pleasant hike which gets 4 out of 5 stars.
You can view and download the GPS track of this hike here: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/krushevo-cross-st-preobrazhenie-monastery-stara-musica-peak-187805940
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