The town of Ohrid, on the shore of the homonymous lake in North Macedonia, is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe, dating back to the Bronze Age. The remains of the prehistoric pile dwellings and of the ancient city of Lychnidos, the numerous byzantine churches of exceptional art and the well-preserved buildings of the Ottoman era, are integrated into a landscape of outstanding ecological value. Built mainly between the 7th and 19th centuries, it has the oldest Slav monastery (St Pantelejmon), as Slav culture spread from Ohrid to other parts of Europe. Due to the town’s masonry heritage, Ohrid’s traditional local influence can be seen in its well-preserved late-Ottoman urban residential architecture (18th and 19th centuries), in the old town center (Varosh),at the foot of Samuel‘s fortress.
Τhe most important churches are St. Clement and St. Pantelejmon, the Holy Virgin Peribleptos, Holy Sophia, the Great Holy Healers, Saints Constantine and Helen, the Lesser St. Clement, the Hospital churches of St. Nicholas and the Holy Virgin, St.Nicholas of Gerakomia, and St. John the Theologian – Kaneo. The convergence of well-conserved natural values with the quality and diversity of its cultural, material, and spiritual heritage, makes this region truly unique.