Smilevo

Smilevo is a village about 40 minutes by car from Bitola and 50 minutes from Krushevo. It is a historically significant village, because at the Congress of Smilevo in May 1903 the decision was taken for the Ilinden Uprising against the Ottoman occupiers, which took place a few months later on 2 August 1903.

The leaders of the Ilinden uprising are today celebrated as heroes in modern-day North Macedonia. Some of the best known revolutionaries were Gotse Delchev, Pitu Guli, Dame Gruev and Yane Sandanski.

The revolutionary Dame Gruev (1871-1906) was born in Smilevo and one of the prominent leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).

Smilevo Monastery

We visited the village of Smilevo while we were having our accommodation at the Smilevo Monastery dedicated to St Peter and Paul. The Monastery of Smilevo is located in the hills high above the village itself. There is an 5 km long asphalted road to the monastery.

The current church is from 2001/2003, but it was built on the site of an older monastery from 1863-1870. The founder of the original monastery, Petre Garski (1820-1904) is buried in the garden behind the altar of the church. The current caretaker (2024) is named Jorde and lives in the village Smilevo.

The Monastery has a beautiful church, two floors for lodging with simple rooms, shared toilet and shower facilities on both floors, a kitchen and BBQ facilities, and a dining room.

We stayed here for two nights. Our first night was also the last night for the other guests who had participated in the yearly woodcarving workshop in the monastery. A very jolly and friendly bunch of woodcarvers who shared their food and drinks with us! The second night we were completely alone in the monastery. There was no fixed price to stay in the monastery, you can decide for yourself what this spiritual stay at a beautiful location is worth to you.

Smilevo

We parked our car at the beginning of the village Smilevo and walked to the Memorial Museum of Smilevo, dedicated to the Smilevo Congress and the revolution. You can find a link to the GPS track of our tour through Smilevo at the bottom of this page. The museum was closed but the neighbors called somebody to open the museum. We got a private tour.

Everything is in Macedonian and the guide did not speak English but my girlfriend translated. The actual Smilevo Congress was not in the same building as the museum. Entrance to the museum was 50 denar in 2024 if I remember correctly.

Then we walked uphill to the Park of Dame Gruev, where a statue of the hero can be seen.

We walked back past the museum to the Ilinden Monument and the Memorial Ossuary of Dame Gruev. Gruev was killed near the village Rusinovo near Berovo in 1906 during a fight with Ottoman forces.

Next we visited the Church of St George from 1911, which was locked. We did not ask around for the key

Another church built against the rocks is dedicated to the three saints St Nedela, St Petka and St Bogorodica.

The last place that we visited on this sightseeing trip was the birth-house of Dame Gruev. Mounted on the wall of this yellow house is an interesting statue of Dame Gruev made from scrap metal.

We combined our visit to Smilevo with a visit to the Slepche Monastery (also known as St Jovan or St John the Baptist Monastery), near the village Slepche about half an hour drive from Smilevo.

You can view and download the GPS track of this village walk here: https://www.wikiloc.com/walking-trails/smilevo-sightseeing-188969471