Klepa Mountain

In the monograph dedicated to the villages of Gorno Chičevo and Podles, the author Strašo Ončevski – Shijakov noted the legend about the origin of the name of the mountain Klepa. According to tradition, the mountain got its name after an unfortunate event in 1605 when the newlyweds Jacob, son of priest Avram from the village of Vodovrati, together with his wife, returning from a celebration of the glory of Prechista in the village of Krajnici, stopped at the monastery “St. Constantine and Elena” in Skachintsi to light candles, during which Jacob was killed by the monks, his wife was imprisoned, and the cattle were slaughtered. When they came to the monastery, they were invited for coffee and brandy by the abbot Vasilij, who had the bad idea to kill and rob them. Most of the monks and the abbot in the monastery were Greeks by origin. After the past three days, priest Avram was worried about his son and daughter-in-law, so even though everyone suspected that the arambasha Veta Joka had done something to them, it was he who, after visiting priest Avram’s house, decided to conduct an investigation. First of all, he questioned the monastery cowherd and several people and understood that the trail of the newlyweds was lost near the monastery. Interrogating the monks, they all hid, and even decided to swear to God. Finally, Veta Joka decided to start slaughtering them one by one, until the monk Michael told what had happened. After this incident, Veta Joka ordered to burn the monastery because it was defiled, and all the monastery goods were given to the monk Michael and the cowherd. The two of them went to the top of the mountain and built a house out of stones, on which they hung the monastery clapper and started hitting with it. The villagers of all the surrounding villages heard the clapping of the clapper and they said to each other what was clapping up in the mountain. This is how this mountain got the name Klepa from the word klepa, and until then it had another name. Apostol Pop-Jovanovski wrote a similar legend, in which the action is the same, only that instead of Veta Joka, Buluk-beg appears as a character, and the only one who remains alive is the cowherd who carries the cowherd to his hut on the top of the mountain.