Kuchevishte (Kuceviste) is a village about 30 minutes north of Skopje by car, at the feet of Skopska Crna Gora (Black Mountain). In all the years that we have visited Skopje, we have never really explored this area. Because of the concentration of Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in this region, it’s also called Holy Mountain of Skopje.
The church of Kuchevishte originally was named St Bogorodica but is nowadays known as St Spas. It can be found in the village (N42° 06′ 43.8″ E21° 25′ 01.9″). The church dates back to 1330. At the back of the church there is a remarkable balcony with stairs, something you don’t see that often. Unfortunately the church was closed and the caretaker who usually lives nearby was unavailable. You can always try to ask around for the key: “Key of the church?”= “klucot od crkvata?”, pronounced “klutsjot od serkvata”.
We thought to be more lucky when we found the remote Monastery St Archangels and its church open! The Monastery is dedicated to Archangels Michael and Gabriel and located less than 3 km north of Kuchevishte (N42° 07′ 56.0″ E21° 24′ 51.0″). The monastery is from 1631.
But to our unpleasant surprise, the place is run by an evil nun who closed the church in front of our eyes, because she would not allow a foreigner (me) in the church. We later heard from a local villager that the nun is an alcoholic who drives to town on her tractor, sometimes so drunk that she can hardly stand. I revisited in 2022 when I did a 17 km long hike that starts at the Monastery.
The Monastery of St Bogorodica, along the road between Kuchevishte and Brodec (Brodets), was also closed (N42° 07′ 32.4″ E21° 25′ 41.9″). We passed this monastery on our way from Brodets to Kuchevisthe, after we did a hike from Brodec to the Crn Kamen and Przhar peaks.
If you plan to visit Kuchevisthe, you could combine this with a visit to St Nicetas in Gornjani, St Nicholas in Ljuboten, St George in Banjani, all described in the booklet “Byzantine Heritage of Skopje” by Vasilka Dimitrovsha (2019, https://haemus.org.mk/). We still have to visit all these villages, but we did visit the Church of St Nikola and Church of St George in Radisani.
My Macedonia Blog 