Things to see and do Kalista

Founded in the early ^14th century, this Orthodox monastery is dedicated to the dormition of the Mother of God (Манастир Рождество на Пресветата Богородица/Manastir Roždestvo na Presvetata Bogorodica). It features a seven-hundred-year-old plane tree, the summer residence of the Archbishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, a modern church and the rock church around which the complex was built. The latter is housed in a cave that has been occupied by hermits since the ^11th century. It comprises three spaces on two levels, accessible via staircases and narrow passages cut into the rock. The walls are almost entirely decorated with frescoes created between the early ^14th and ^16th centuries. Among them, the oldest scene is the Vision of Saint Peter of Alexandria: a 12-year-old child in torn clothes appears to the Patriarch of Alexandria; he claims to have been attacked by the priest Arius (condemned for heresy at the Council of Nicaea in 325) and announces to Peter that he will die a martyr's death. Also of note are the portraits of the archangels Gabriel and Michael guarding the entrance to the church and a representation, unique in the Balkans, of the two holy healers of Nicomedia (today Izmir, Turkey) Saint Hermolaos and Saint Panteleimon, the former teaching Christianity to the latter. The grotto also boasts two reputedly miraculous springs dedicated to the apostle Peter and Saint Ananias of Damascus (the apostle Paul's healer).

Set into a cliff on the edge of the lake, this Orthodox rock church (Црква Свети Атанасиј/Crkva Sveti Atanasij) dates from the ^mid-14th century. It houses superb frescoes from the 1360s, which were rediscovered during a restoration in 1964. Particularly noteworthy are the portraits of saints (St. Clement of Ohrid, St. Nicholas, St. Petka, etc.), inspired by those in St. Sophia Cathedral in Ohrid, but more realistic and "alive", with magnificent drapery in particular.