Gari

Gari is a small village at the south border of Mavrovo National Park.

The Church of the Assumption of Holy Mother of God (Uspenie na Presveta Bogorodica) in Gari was closed when we arrived. Usually, the caretaker of the church is living nearby and can open the church for you. After asking around we found that the caretaker was the father of the owners of Hotel Topila in Gari. He came with us from the nearby hotel and showed us the church. The church is about 400 years old.

I believe the woodcarving of the iconostasis was made by one of the famous Filipovski brothers, who were born in Gari. They also were responsible for the woodcarving of the iconostasis of the St Joakim Bigorski Monastery in Mavrovo National Park, St Spas in Skopje and St Gavril in the Lesnovo Monastery.

There’s also a free mason all-seeing eye in one of the frescos.

We found the small Motel Toplia when we were looking for the caretaker of the Church of the Assumption of Holy Mother of God in Gari, who is the father of the owners of Motel Topila. The owners of the hotel gave us a quick tour of the recently restored hotel. It has 4 rooms and a kitchen that can be used by the visitors. It also has its own restaurant and nice places to sit outside.
We wish we had heard about this hotel with its friendly owners earlier! The room price in 2016 was 10 euro per person, which is a lot cheaper than our stay in the overpriced hotel Tutto in Jance, where we did not have such a great stay (50 euros for an outdated double bed room, bad food and worse service). Motel Topila does not have a website yet but you can contact them on Facebook.

In 2019 we came back to Motel Topila where we stayed for a couple of days to do some hikes in Mavrovo National Park. As expected we really liked our stay here, the people were friendly and the food was good. Two hikes that start in Gari are Gari to Krsiser Rigde (12.5 km) and Gari to Golem Rid, Bik Doruk and Babin Srt peaks (27 km). The little dogs from the motel accompanied us during these hikes!

There is a small waterfall just behind the hotel.

This spring in Gari is dedicated to the people who died during the second world war.

• 

• 

•