Metochion of St John the Baptist

About 2 km to the north-east of the village of Nebregovo is the Metochion dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. According to a legend, the property, together with the church, was a gift by King Marko, and according to some other legend the fields were given to the monastery by some Miyaks, who used these fields as a pastry for their flocks.

According to a legend, the monastery property, together with the church was a gift by King Marko.

In the past this Metochion was mainly used as a hospice for the monks and the workers who worked on the wheat fields, and from there the wheat was taken to the monastery mill near the Radika River.

Манастир „Св. Јован Претеча"

We can conclude, based on a poem by Blazhe Koneski from Nebregovo, titled “St. Spyridon the New”, that this Metochion was functional until a while ago, until the discontinuation of monastic life in the Bigorski monastery, after the death of Abbot Spyridon in 1947. In this poem the author depicts the wheat harvest that he witnessed as a child.

When monastic life ceased in the Bigorski monastery, this Metochion was deserted for a long time, without any functional buildings left. In 1970, at the initiative of the village church committee a new was built and later a hospice and a bell tower. But a few decades before that, in the deserted monastery, through the excavations performed by the local population remnants of an older church were discovered. It is located about 6-7 meters south-east of the present new monastery church and is in a state of archaeological remains. The church, besides the fresco paintings, was also richly adorned with stone art. There is no data about the time of building of this old church in the monastery of St John the Baptist near the village of Nebregovo. Not even the material evidence discovered so far can help its dating.

The Academician Blazhe Koneski wrote a poem titled “Saint Spyridon the New”, in which he depicts the wheat harvest that he witnessed as a child

The property of this Metochion, which was nationalized by the Government in the period of the collectivization, was returned to the holy Bigorski Monastery, along with other properties of it, but unfortunately, the land that was scarcely fertile in the past, is completely unfertile today and cannot be used because of the long period of negligence.