ST. ELIAS MONASTERY OF ЧАРДАК (ИЛИЈА СВЕТИ СВЕТИ МАНАСТИР)

This Orthodox monastery (Мирковски Манастир/Mirkovski Manastir) was founded in 1879, in a period of tension between the Bulgarian and Serbian clergy. It was in fact created by a Bulgarian monk to divert the faithful from the St. Elias Monastery in Banjane, which was then under the Serbian patriarchate. The small catholicon (main church), which dates from 1879, has a rich iconoclast made around 1950 by the last great master of the Debar school, Nestor Alexiev (1878-1969).