The Church of St Archangel Michael is from the 17th century and is only reachable via an unpaved road, so we parked at the end of the asphalt road and walked the remaining 1.5 km.
We asked in the village Dramche if the church would be open, and they told us likely not. But we walked to the church anyway. It turned out that the villagers had called the caretaker of the church and he was already waiting for us at the church when we arrived there. He lives nearby and his phone number is written on a sign at the church.
An information panel next to the church says the following:
“The church “St Archangel Michael” in Dramce is located in the place called “Eremija”. Among the population and the science, it is known as the colorful church due to the wonderful frescoes that it used to have. It is thought that the construction was in the post Byzantium period, at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, and it is an one-nave church. The altar icons were painted by Grigorije Pecanev from Strumica, at St. Dveri, he wrote the date 1841 when they were made, but it is predicted that the church and the whole iconostasis had been built much earlier.
The church was burned several times and although it was all decorated with frescoes, they were totally destroyed and only under the upper layer there are signals that they used to be frescoes.
The church used to be valuable enlightenment and cultural centre. In its yard, there was the first school in Dramce, founded in 1869. In it, teaching lectures were held from 1922, when the school was relocated to new school premises. After 140 years of teaching life, the school stopped working in 2009 due to the small number of students.
Every year, on 21st November, on the holiday St Archangel Michael, a traditional festive gathering is organized in the churchyard with dances, songs and traditional food. Traditionally, the oro (traditional dance style) called Kopacka is performed — the pearl of the Pijanec folklore as authentic and original dance from village Dramce.”
At the moment, there is nothing left of the once so colorful frescoes.
The caretaker also showed us some very old books that he had found on the premises.
We combined our visit to the Church of St Archangel Michael with the following other sights:
– The village Grad with the Gradishte Fortress and the Konjska Dupka Cave
– Kiselica Cave near the village Kiselica
– Church of St Petka (12th century) near Selnik (The church will probably be closed and therefore not worth the effort; we were told that the caretaker of the church lives in Delchevo)
– Ochipala Cave and Tunnel (I visited them another day but they are in the vicinity of the other sights)
You can view and download the GPS track of this short walk here: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/dramche-st-archangel-michael-237205555
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