In September 2025 we stayed for a couple of days in the small town of Pehchevo in the east of Macedonia. We stayed in Villa River, which is basically the easternmost house of Pehchevo. The owner of Villa River has made an excellent PDF with an abundance of information about Pehchevo and surroundings in English, which was super helpful during our stay. A rare service!
The day that we arrived in Pehchevo from Skopje, we had a late lunch/early dinner in restaurant Meanche at about 1 km walking from our accommodation. The restaurant came recommended by Villa River and they were right. It seems to be a restaurant and butcher shop in one, so you’re sure of high quality meat!
Pehchevo is the second highest town in Macedonia, after Krushevo. In 1904 the town was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake, and also suffered a lot during WWI and the Balkan Wars.
The current Church of St Peter and Paul was consecrated in 1988. It was closed when we were there.
The church and the restaurant were basically the only places we visited in Pehchevo itself. We used Pehchevo as a base to do several daytrips and hikes in the surroundings. See below for the details, and use the links for more information about the individual sites.
Daytrip 1: Waterfalls, St Petka, Kukulje and Budinarci
We first visited the Spikovski Waterfall, close to the recreational area called Ravna Reka. It’s a walk of about 1 km to the waterfall. The waterfall was a bit underwhelming after the hot summer.
The nearby Crnodolski waterfall was a bit more interesting. It is 1.5 km walking on a well maintained path to the waterfall.
St Petka archeological site
The archeological site St Petka that is also referred to as Manastir (Monastery) is located 4 km outside of Pehchevo. There used to be an early Christian basilica at this place, probably dating to roughly the 5th–6th century AD. This church was part of a larger monastic complex with additional buildings.
In 2000 the site was partially preserved and in 2001 a small monastery church dedicated to St Petka was built on the foundations of the old monastery complex. There’s an asphalt road leading to the site. Location: N41° 46′ 40.3″ E22° 51′ 45.4″
Kukulje Natural Rarity
The natural rarity Kukulje or Stone Dolls is located near the village Nov Istevnik, about 15 km north of Pehchevo. It consists of eroded, steep clay slopes and earth pyramids, which reach up to 20 meters in height. These formations are made of loose sedimentary material and have characteristic shapes similar to stone dolls.
The site can be reached with a less than 2 km hike from Nov Istevnik, where the asphalt road stops. It reminds of the better known Kuklica Stone Dolls near the town of Kratovo.
Budinarci
In the rural village Budinarci, we visited the Church of St George from 1854 and the ruins of the Budinarci Fortress.
Daytrip 2: Hike to the Kadiica Peak
The hike of almost 20 km with 1050 m ascent to the Kadiica Peak started basically at our accommodation in Villa River in Pehchevo. Besides the Kadiica peak it visit two other interesting sites: The Vrtena Skala rock formation, which according to legend has healing properties and the Judovi Livadi locality where you can find carnivorous plants.
Daytrip 3: Fortress, caves and churches
We first visited the village Grad, 25 km north of Pehchevo along the road to Delchevo. On a hill overseeing the village there are the restored ruins of the Gradishte Fortress. We did a short circular hike that visited both the fortress as well as the Konjska Dupka Cave (Horse’s Hole). Access to the Konjska Dupka cave was difficult.
Next, we drove to the village Dramche to visit the Church of St Archangel Michael from the 17th century.
The Church of St Archangel Michael in Dramche can be reached by a 1.5 km walk on a dirt road. If the church is closed, there is a phone number at the church that you can call and the caretaker will open the church for you when he is around.
We next visited the Church of St Petka from the 12th century near Selnik. The caretaker of the Church of St Archangel Michael in Dramche had already warned us that the church probably would be closed. Its caretaker lives in Delchevo and probably is not available to open the church. According to an info panel “the interior of the church was painted by Jovan Komnov, probably in the third decade of the 12th century. The paintings include the local hermits St Joakim Osogovski and St Joan Rilski. The entire church is painted, but a large part of the frescoes is damaged. The iconostasis with the royal doors and icons were made in 1906“. Too bad this church was closed, there really is not much to see on the outside! Unless you arrange for the church to be opened, you may as well skip this sight. Location: N42° 01′ 26.1″ E22° 43′ 22.6″
We next went to the Kiselica Cave, close to the village Kiselica. We went by car via the asphalt roads, but it seems that there also is a hiking trail or dirt road connecting the Church of St Petka and the Kiselica Cave, in case you would like to walk there. It should be about 4 km walking. It was difficult to get to the cave because the path was pretty overgrown and some climbing was required to reach the entrance. I also missed the other entrance to the cave.
If you’re driving back from Ramche or Selnik to the main road, there is the possibility to visit the Ochipala cave, near the village Ochipala. I actually visited this cave a day later because we could not find the cave during “daytrip 3“. There’s also another cave or tunnel in the vicinity of Ochipala, which had hundreds of bats inside.
Daytrip 4: Hike to the Chengino Kale Peak
A nice hike of 20 km with 730 m ascent to the Chengino Kale peak, that starts at the recreational area Ravna Reka, where also the trails to the waterfall from “daytrip 1” started. Some additional waterfalls can be seen during this hike, depending on the season. During summer 2025 they were mostly dry.
This was our last activity around Pehchevo in September 2025, our next destination was Demir Kapija.
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