We visited the village of Sloestica (Sloeshtica) after we first visited the village Babino, where we visited the Zmejova Dupka or Dragon Cave and the the Al-Bi private library.
I had seen the Church of St Nikola on OpenStreetMap and drove by to see if it was interesting. At first it was unclear where the church was, since it is located just next to a mining site. The mining site had guard dogs, but lucky for us there was a guard on duty who opened the church for us and could even tell us some details about the church. Location: N41° 17′ 04.6″ E21° 05′ 30.5″.
St Nikola Toplichki
The church used to be part of the the medieval St Nikola Toplichki Monastery from the 14th century. This old church was really an unexpected gem.
The church has great intact frescoes. According to the guard the fresco of St Marina is the only one of its kind in Macedonia.
The guard also showed us a spring near the church. Location: N41° 17′ 00.9″ E21° 05′ 28.3″.
Washing machines
We drove on to the village of Sloestica, were there are two “natural washing machines” located at the restaurant “Na Valajci“. Location: N41° 15′ 52.3″ E21° 04′ 27.5″
Unfortunately the restaurant was closed but we could visit the “natural washing machines” which use a natural stream of water to wash rugs etc. I doubt these are still in use, as they are part of the terrace of the restaurant. The only place I have seen these natural washing machines before was in the village Rechica near Ohrid, where they actually were still in use to wash rugs.
Missed churches
It seems we may have missed another very interesting church in Sloestica, the Church of St Atanas (Athanasius), which according to this source should have a rare stone iconostasis. Location: N41° 16′ 06.3″ E21° 04′ 53.5″.
We also did not visit the main church of Sloestica, St Bogorodica. Location: N41° 15′ 59.4″ E21° 04′ 31.2″.
After our visit to Sloestica, we visit several other churches on our way back to Krushevo where we had our accommodation. See here for the places that we visited after Sloestica: Daytrips from Krushevo.
My Macedonia Blog 