Galichnik is a mountain village perched on the slopes of Bistra in western Macedonia, slowly emptying out like so many Balkan highland settlements but brought back to life once a year for its famous wedding festival.
Each summer, on the Orthodox feast of St Peter's Day (old calendar, the weekend around 12 July), the Galichnik Wedding Festival takes place. A real couple is married in full traditional Macedonian style — ancient customs, traditional music and dances, elaborate costumes — on the village square, which doubles as a natural amphitheatre. Visitors mix freely with participants, and for a weekend the village feels as alive as it must have been a century ago.
The village's stone architecture is among the finest surviving examples of Mijak craftsmanship in the region. About six kilometres below the village, Saint Jovan Bigorski Monastery rewards a short detour with one of the most impressive carved iconostases in the Balkans.