Kristijan Evgo: Ljubojno – In Oblivion

I have been documenting the changes in my grandma’s village in Prespa and the effects of globalization, climate change and neglect since 2019.

Ljubojno is a hilly-mountain village of compact type located in the Lake Prespa region in North Macedonia. Once a striving settlement of more than two thousand inhabitants, today it numbers less than 200. It has about 350 houses that are built in close proximity to each other and are connected and properly located along the narrow streets. Most houses were decorated with fine carved stone and colorful facades with spacious balconies, and their courtyards are enclosed with high fences and wide gates. Once a rich village full of life, today comes alive only in summer when the descendants return for their holidays.

Ljubojno has also been an educational center for a long time. The first school in the village was built in the second half of the 19th century. The “Dimitar Vlahov School”, built on the grounds of the old school, was the first school in Macedonia with classes in Macedonian language, opened right after WWII, which unfortunately burned down in 1983 and now sits abandoned to testify of the negligence of the officials.

I could see all kinds of animals in the villages as a child. Horses, donkeys, geese, cows, sheep, chicken, ducks, pigs. Today farm animals are a rare sight, not even chickens. The young move out to cities, those in the cities move abroad. These beautiful regions lay there forgotten to testify to days of glory long gone and serve as a monument of our childhood and happiness. Each corner, each stone in the river, each bird nest is deeply engraved in our nostalgic memoir.

Can we stop and reverse this process of oblivion?