Galicnik

Galičnik stands at around fifteen hundred metres on the Bistra slopes, a village of stone houses stacked up an amphitheatre of hillside, built by a community of Mijak masons and craftsmen whose men worked abroad for most of the year. Emigration emptied it and only a handful of people live there now, but on the weekend nearest Saint Peter's day in July the Galičnik Wedding brings the descendants back and a couple is married in the old manner.

History

Galičnik is one of the two largest and oldest Mijak villages, and it appears in the Ottoman register of 1467 in the ziamet of Reka. At the end of the 19th century it was a large town of masons and sheep breeders with some 500 houses (Wikipedia, Galičnik).

What you'll find

• The stone village - houses stacked up the hillside in a natural amphitheatre.
• The Galicnik Wedding - the July festival when the village fills for a traditional marriage.
• The Mijak building - the masonry of a community that produced builders and carvers.
• The emptiness - a village of a few permanent residents for most of the year.

When to go

The wedding festival falls on the weekend nearest 12 July and is when the village comes alive. June to September is otherwise the season. Snow closes the road in winter.

Things to know

For most of the year the village is nearly empty with almost no services. The wedding weekend is crowded and accommodation is impossible without booking far ahead. The road up is narrow.

Nearby

Mavrovo is east, and Bigorski Monastery is southwest.

Key facts