Nikiforovo – a village in the Municipality of Mavrovo and Rostushe, located on the shore of Lake Mavrovo. The village is located in the Mavrovska Kotlina, on a bay on the eastern shore of the Mavrovska Lake. The Petilepska River flows through Nikiforovo, which ends up flowing into the lake. Administratively, it is part of the Mavrovo and Rostushe Municipality, western Macedonia, located in the eastern part of the municipality. At the same time, the village is part of the Mavrovo National Park. It is located in the lower parts of Bistra mountain.
The village is connected by the asphalt road P-413 with the neighboring villages of Leunovo and Mavrovo, a road that goes around the Mavrovo Lake. It is 32 kilometers away from the city of Gostivar. The village has about 100 houses, and most of them are holiday homes.
The settlement of Nikiforovo is believed to have a distant past. Proof of that is the place “Crkvichetto” in the village of Bor. Archaeological research has confirmed the existence of a monastery complex, whose existence originates from V-VII. The church of this monastery complex was in full use and services were performed until it was burned down by German soldiers in 1943. In addition to the burning of the church, the fire also burned the entire village. Today, the deposit has been declared a cultural heritage of Macedonia.
Source: Wikipedia
Tour
We start the tour in front of the village market (closed) in the village. Nikiforovo, where there is a possibility to park several vehicles. We pass the last weekend homes from the sleepy and empty Nikiforovo and enter a beautiful forest with a large number of springs and streams. Hiking markings are frequent and the movement really easy, although on several occasions we spotted fresh bear tracks. After passing 2.8 km. we leave the forest and arrive at the famous sources of the Petilebska river – the fountain with the same name is hidden by vegetation, but we struggled and found it to drink cold spring water. From this point the marking ends and you need navigation to move on. After passing 4 km. we are approaching the sheep house, which at this time of the year is quite busy with work. Since we are moving with Murphy – our beagle, we decided to avoid the herds of sheep and their guards at all costs in order to protect Murphy from possible attacks and injuries. We take a break in order to locate the few herds scattered on the mountain as well as their direction of movement and in doing so we decide to head south in the direction of Mali Shar peak and then climb Sandaktash along the ridge. Our advice: if you are moving with a pet or small children, and if you want to avoid the herds and their guards, use the same path (in blue). We move in the direction of Mali Shar and before the peak we turn towards the neighboring peak (without a name) and then towards Sandaktash – beautiful views of the surrounding peaks of Bistra and the Mavrovo Lake, while in the background our highest massif – Korab – towers strongly.
Mountain trails nearby:
Bike trails nearby:
