Elizabeta Diimitrova

Philipp Niewöhner
Risto Paligora
Gordana Velkov

Seven Churches
in the Regions of
Pelagonia, Mariovo
and Prespa
Seven Churches in the Regions of
Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa

The church of St. George in Kurbinovo

The church of St. Nikolas in the Village of Manastir
St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep
The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep
The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec
The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze
The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery
 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa

CONTENTS
Translated from Macedonian by Filip Korženski
Translation editor: Julian Pack
Photographs: Miško Tutkovski
Design and layout: Metodija Andonov, Datapons Skopje

Printed by Datapons Skopje

Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................5
Skopje, June 2019
The church of St. George in Kurbinovo ......................................................................................................................8
On the front cover:
The Harrowing of Hell, St. George, Kurbinovo The church of St. Nikolas in the Village of Manastir .......................................................................................... 28

St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep .................................................................................................... 46

The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep................................................................................................................................ 64

The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec .......................................................................... 82

The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze ..................................................................................102

Other guide books published by Makedonida: Coming soon: The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery .......................................................................................118

• Седум споменици на културата во Скопје • Sieben bedeutende Kulturdenkmäler in Skopje

и скопско, 2009 (in Macedonian) und Umgebung
• Les Arts Sacrés de Sept Monuments à Skopje
et les environs du XIIe au XIXe siècle, 2012
• Skopje, Seven Monuments of Art
and Architecture, 2010, 2014

4 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 5

6 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
Seven Churches in the Regions
of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
It is a great pleasure and privilege to
take part in such a project as this –
the publication of a guide book about
the major monuments of Byzantine
culture in the Republic of Macedonia.
This work comprises seven chapters
on seven of the most important
mediaeval places of worship in the
country, including the Church of
St. Sophia in Ohrid from the 11th
century, the Church of St. Panteleimon
at Nerezi of the12th century, right up
to the 14th century church dedicated
to the Holy Archangel Michael at
Lesnovo. Considering their historical,
architectural and artistic values,
these churches represent the most
important cultural heritage of the
Republic of Macedonia and without
doubt deserve to be regarded as
national, European and world cultural
heritage.
All these cultural monuments are at
the same time outstanding examples
of a ‘living’ heritage. Today, nearly
a thousand years later, they are still
being used for their original purpose
as religious shrines, and testify to how
such holy places of different religions
and cultures have been respected
in the territory of what is today the
Republic of Macedonia. Our country
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
can but only feel pride in these
mediaeval churches, their beautiful
frescoes, masterpieces of Byzantine
art, with impressive architecture and
the spiritual message of love and
peace that imbues them. With them
we travel through time and space and
with them we are part of the highest
achievements of world history. They
symbolize our country, nation and
culture; they are our most precious
trademark and our best ambassador in
the world.
It is for this reason that the book is
being published in English first – to
be used as a guide book by everyone
who visits our country. But we have
not forgotten our domestic readers.
A publication in Macedonian is also
being prepared with the support of the
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of
Macedonia.
We would like to thank the authors
of the seven chapters: Elizabeta
Dimitrova, Professor of art history at
the Faculty of Philosophy, Ss. Cyril
and Methodius University of Skopje,
and Gordana Velkov, art historian and
advisor in archaeology and art history
in the Makedonida Foundation. They
have spared no efforts or time to present
the churches not only as cultural
heritage of exceptional artistic worth,
but also as holy places and cultural
monuments of unique historical
significance. We are in particular
indebted to Miško Tutkovski for his
excellent photographs published for
the first time in this book, and also to
Filip Korženski, who has shown great
dedication and patience during the
translation of the Macedonian text
into English. Of course, our greatest
thanks go to our dear friend Rolf
Achilles, Professor at the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago, without
whose help, advice and suggestions
this publication could never have seen
the light of the day.
Last but not least, in particular it
should be mentioned that the complete
preparation of the book, including
the work on the photographs, design
and printing, were once again
financially sponsored by the Richard
H. Driehaus Foundation, Chicago, a
long-term partner and supporter of the
Makedonida Foundation.
Editor-in-chief
Panče Velkov, Ph.D.
Makedonida President
7
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8 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Republic of North Macedonia
9
 The church of
St. George in Kurbinovo
- Elizabeta Dimitrova -

The Church of St. George in the village of Kurbinovo has a special

place among the monuments belonging to the medieval cultural
heritage of Macedonia. It was constructed at the end of the
12th centurybeside the southern shore of the Prespa Lake, using
unimposing architectural forms, and decorated with an exclusive
fresco-ensemble featuring programmatic, iconographic, and stylistic
novelties. With its remarkable pictorial reaches, authentic visual
solutions, and exclusive aesthetic qualities, the church represents an
artistic work that chronologically concludes the Middle Byzantine
epoch. Fresco painting on the church began in April 1191 and was
most likely to have been completed during the autumn months of
the same working season, which in the Byzantine era would start in
Spring and last until October or November. Its fresco-panorama is
an expression of the creative potential of one impresario’s crew whose
members remained unknown, unnamed, and forever concealed
beneath the crude layers of historical oblivion. Nevertheless, their
inspiration, painterly skill, and remarkable creative imagination have
created an artistic monument with unparalleled aesthetic qualities
that transcend the historicaltransience of the centuries gone by. The
inventive stylistics and exciting iconography of its fresco decoration
present a pictorial testimony to the creative energy and artistic
achievement of the master artists from a remarkably fruitful creative
epoch, which becamean inspiration to many future generations of
fresco painters in the territory of Macedonia

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 11

1 St. George in Kurbinovo, South-west view of the church
 03 St. George in Kurbinovo, The Virgin with Christ

Inscribed on the altar table inside the sanctuary of the

church is the year ‘1191’. This offers importantevidence of
the chronology of the Kurbinovo fresco-painting. Yet it is
the sole preserved data about the history of this shrine. In
the absence of clear khtetorial inscription, or historical and
diplomatic documents, information such as the name and
identity of the commissioner, his social background, the
motives behind his khtetorial engagement and the specific
choice of location will forever remain an enigma for
researchers and visitors to the church. However, few traces
of visual material—for instance, the silhouettes of the original
khtetorial composition—have been preserved on the west
façade of the building. Despite having been severely damaged
by the capricious weather, they are discernible enough to
point to certain conclusions about the identity of the khtetor
of the church of Kurbinovo. Within the façade’s khtetorial
composition, we can recognize the imperial garments of the
figures represented in the second zone on the northern half
of the wall; these undoubtedly belong to the Emperor Isaac II
Angelus and the Empress Margaret as official representatives
of the Byzantine authority at the time the Kurbinovo church
was established. The figure depicted on the southern half of
the façade wall, opposite to the depictions of the Byzantine
imperial couple, could be identified as John Camaterus, the
Archbishop of Ohrid, the supreme ecclesiastical authority for
the territory on which this shrine was built.

02 St. George in Kurbinovo, The fresco-decoration in the altar space

 was probably used as an exit as it is placed higher than the
ground level of the edifice. Due to the changes in the ground
level in the centuries after the church was constructed, it is
no longer possible to reconstruct the function of the side
entrances. Nevertheless, since it is a one-nave building
that could easily have been functional with just one or two
gates, we can conclude that the three entrances had specific
roles and significance for the communication between the
believers and the clergy, as well as for the temple’s functional
configuration.
The building components of the exterior of the church are
also unimposing (Fig. 1). Though the edifice was placed
on a raised plateau, its walls were made of roughly-hewed
stone attached by mortar, a feature of the less representative
edifices in the Byzantine architecture of the 12th century.
The unequally-carved pieces of stone were placed in quite
an irregular building pattern, following more or less the
imaginary horizontal registers filled with a relatively large
quantity of mortar. At places, especially in the altar wall,
the masons made efforts to follow the horizontal design
in the positioning of the stone elements, thus creating
an impression of a far more skilful design. Yet the church
façades give the overall impression of a “discrete modesty” of
craftsmanship. When we consider the small openings shaped
as monophores placed on the side walls, the Church of St.
George in Kurbinovo manifests itself as an “aesthetically
unpretentious” addendum to the architectural heritage of
04 St. George in Kurbinovo, Officiating Church Fathers (detail) the end of the Middle Byzantine epoch. The attempts to
imitate a somewhat more lavish edifice of stone and brick
Although the figure of the commissioner depicted beside In terms of its architectural archetype, the Church of using a fresco technique, traces of which are still visible on
the image of the Archbishop of Ohrid has not been St. George in Kurbinovo is a single-nave temple with the western façade of the church, hints at the intentions to
preserved, his presence amid the leading representatives unimposing dimensions. The rectangular perimeter of the camouflage the construction’s modesty using a veneer of
of the Byzantine empire as well as of the Church of Ohrid edifice is covered by a two-sided roof, which forms triangle elaborate masonry. However, despite the attempts to beautify
suggests that he was a person of high social status and an frontons at the eastern and the western façades, while the the exterior of the church, it is the relatively rough technique
important feudal pedigree. Judging by the design of the deep semi-circular apse denotes the holy space and encircles of construction, the unsophisticated building materials, and
composition, the khtetor of Kurbinovo was introduced to the longitudinal projection of the edifice along the east- the monotone design of the façade that remain the most
the imperial couple by Archbishop John, the princeps on west axis. The interior of the edifice is a unified space with distinctive features of the Kurbinovo temple’s architecture.
the Ohrid’s archbishopric throne; he was depicted along relatively prominent dimensions for a one-nave building (15 Despite the modest appearance of the temple’s architecture,
side the state and church authorities to whom he, being x 7 meters). It gives a monumental appearance from the peak the fresco-ensemble in the Church of St. George in Kurbinovo
an Orthodox Byzantine nobleman, would have been a of the two-sided roof towards the stone floor, thus uniting the is an impressive specimen of Byzantine artistic culture, and
loyal subject. His personal feudal title is not known; nor flat canvases of the side walls with the deep radius of the semi- more generally represents a remarkable accomplishment of
is it clear whether he belonged to the secular or spiritual circular apse. The length of 15 meters has also allowed three medieval artistic heritage of all times. Its inventive concept,
nobility. However, his khtetorial engagement, as seen in entrances to open onto the nave of the temple. Apart from innovative iconography, and authentic painterly handwriting
the architectural design of the church and especially in the main gate on the western side of the edifice, the builders make the church one of the most significant monuments of
the painterly contents of the fresco-ensemble, strongly have placed two additional gates: one in the middle of the the middle Byzantine epoch to the extent that it heralded
indicates his personal inclination towards creative freedom southern wall, and the other in the western part of the north new directions for generations of fresco painters to come. In
and visual novelties, further suggesting that he belonged to wall. The southern entrance would lead visitors directly into particular, its new programme and iconographic elements
the high orders of the noble elite. the centre of the nave, while the one on the northern wall were to become obligatory features of Byzantine ecclesiastical
16 The church of St. George in Kurbinov Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
décor. Although the Kurbinovo master-painters drew upon
the knowledge and experiences of the Constantinopolitan
fresco-painters of older monuments such as the Church
of St. Panteleimon in Nerezi, here they have created an
original fresco-arrangement, whose pictorial poetics have
surpassed those of all its artistic predecessors. With its visual
aesthetic based on virtuoso drawings, the fresh energetic
intensity of the dynamic modeling of the forms, as well as
the wavy elegance of the movements, the fresco-painting
of St. George in Kurbinovo is the exceptional finale to the
immense creative potency of the Middle Byzantine era.
The program-concept of the painting in the Church of
St. George in Kurbinovo has four basic elements: (1) the
frescoes in the altar area (Fig. 2); (2) the decoration of the
highest zones of the north, south, and west walls, which
become a substitute to the non-existing dome register; (3)
the illustration of the Christological Cycle in the second
register of the walls of the nave; and (4) the gallery of saintly
figures executed in the lowest zone of the temple’s interior.
The innovative character of the frescoes in the Kurbinovo
altar is marked by two aspects: an iconographic one, which
represents Christ as a fair-haired newborn playing in his
mother’s embrace in the conch (Fig. 3), and a programmatic
one, which is the oldest example of the image of the
Officiating Church Fathers to the Amnos in the lower zone,
where the newborn Jesus is laid on the altar of human sins
(Fig. 4). Symbolizing the Eucharistic bread in the mystical
sacrament of the Communion, the Christ, accompanied in
this scene by the bishops bowing down at his voluntarily given
sacrifice, sublimes into the complex symbolic of redemption
and salvation. First depicted in the altar of Kurbinovo,
this scene becomes its most significant contribution to
the forthcoming formulation of the mandatory Byzantine
programme and iconographic painterly matrixes.
Although the one-nave typological ground plan of the
Kurbinovo temple allows for a two-sided wooden roof
construction of the edifice, the painted programme of the
church clearly shows that the decoration of its interior had
also included a dome décor. However, due to the lack of a
dome, the decorative features of the highest zones of the
edifice—usually depicting the Christ Pantocrator (the
Master of the Universe), angelic beings, and Old Testament
prophets—were rearranged in the highest zones of the
temple’s interior. Thus, the prophets took their positions at
the tops of the north and south walls of the church, while
the angelic beings flanking the impressive image of Christ,
Ancient of the Days, were situated on the west wall and the
properly separated third zone (Fig. 5).
17
05 St. George in Kurbinovo, Christ –Ancient of the Days

06 St. George in Kurbinovo, Annunciation

 scene of the Myrrophores at the Sepulcher and again in the
Harrowing of Hell. Third, almost all compositions in the
Christological Cycle contain authentic allegorical and/or
genre-components affirming the profound erudition of its
creators. For instance, the painters have included in the scene
of the Annunciation (Fig. 6) an allusion to the enclosed
garden and the sealed well from the verses of Solomon’s Song
of Songs that refer to the Virgin’s immaculate conception in the
event describing the Visitation, in which a clear distinction has
been made between the young, dark-haired Mary and her aged
and already white-haired cousin (Fig. 7).In the spectacle of the
Nativity scene, the shepherds’ sheepfold is presented along
with the sheep-dog, referring to the departure of the shepherds
toward Bethlehem’s cave (Fig. 8).

07 St. George in Kurbinovo, Visitation (detail)

The substitution the Pantocrator’s image with that of
the “Old Testament Christ” has been the most suitable
alternative in the absence of a dome to the temple. Thus,
instead of a dome and the Pantocrator, the Kurbinovo
church was extensively decorated in the upper zones of the
walls with images of the foretold Messiah in the heavenly
heights awaiting his soteriological incarnation as predicted
by the prophets.
The illustration of the Christological Cycle, beginning with
the scene of the Annunciation positioned on the east wall
of the church and concluding with the Harrowing of Hell
executed in the eastern part of the north wall, emphasises
three main characteristics. One, the arrangement in the
illustration of the evangelistic scenes does not correspond
to the Biblical timeline of events. For instance, the Entry
in Jerusalem is represented before the Transfiguration, thus
disrupting the usual arrangement of the scenes within the
cycle, perhaps with an intention to invest a new significance
to existing Biblical stories. Second, the cycle is enriched by
additional elements that both enhance its visual content
and provide a more explicit pictorial extrapolation of the
Biblical meaning. Examples of this are the scenes presenting 08 St. George in Kurbinovo, Nativity (detail)
the Annunciation as an announcement to the Nativity and
the double representation of the Resurrection, first in the

20 The church of St. George in Kurbinov Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 21
 In the composition depicting Christ’s Entry in Jerusalem,
one can notice the toddler’s resourcefulness in the
welcoming of the Messiah at the entrance to the city walls
(Fig. 9).In the representation of the Transfiguration,
certain esoteric moments have been added to the
scenes of communication between the apostles and
the metamorphosed teacher, while components of the
painted landscape acquire anthropomorphic forms
in the depiction of the Harrowing of Hell (Fig. 10).
The aforementioned elements speak of the unbridled
inventiveness of the master-painters as they did not shy
away from giving remarkably original visual touches
to the canonical iconographic forms of the vistas, thus
creating one of the most evocative Christological cycles
in the entire history of Byzantine monumental painting.
The lowest register of the painted decoration of the
Kurbinovo church contains a gallery of saintly figures,
in which the images of a dozen representatives of
the Orthodox ecclesiastical history are preserved.
Noteworthy among these are the oldest representations
of the figure of St. Anne Nursing ( Fig. 11) , depicted with
the Little Virgin in the western part of the south wall,
and the bust of the young St. Euphrosinos, the protector
of cooks and gastronomy, in middle of the north wall.
Beside them, the figures of the Holy Healers—Saints
Cosmas, Damian and Panteleimon—represent the triad
of the noble medicine-men for the poor, whose natural
gift of healing gave ease to those suffering from corporal
and spiritual diseases.

09 St. George in Kurbinovo, Entry in Jerusalem (detail) 10 St. George in Kurbinovo, Harrowing of Hell (detail) 11 St. George in Kurbinovo, St. Anne Nursing

22 The church of St. George in Kurbinov

 13 St. George in Kurbinovo, Fresco -icon with the Image of Christ

12 St. George in Kurbinovo, Holy Archangel Michael

 On the south wall of the church are represented the patrons
of Orthodoxy—the Holy Emperor Constantine with his
mother Helena—while the saintly gallery in the most
solemn eastern part of the temple contains portraits of
the brothers Cyril and Methodius, Holy Missionaries and
creators of the Slavic alphabet, whose cult existed as early as
the 10th century in the territory of the Ohrid Archbishopric.
Opposite them in the eastern part of the north wall is
preserved a portrait of St. Clement of Ohrid, testifying to
the key role of this Slavic teacher in the development of
the ecclesiastical institution in this region. The west wall
of the temple features quite an interesting gallery of female
saints, including lavishly costumed figures of the Saints
Barbara, Kiriaki, and Catherine in the northern part of the
west wall, as well as the modest monastic representations of
SaintsThecla, Paraskevi,and Theodorain the southern part of
the west wall. The gallery forms the line of the non-existing
narthex, enablingthe believers grouped in the “female” part
of the temple to follow the liturgy and other ecclesiastical
performances. Thus, the representatives of various saintly
categories have received a suitable place in the sacred space
of the temple: the Archbishops near the altar; the Holy
Healers, the hermits (from among whom the bust of St.
Onuphrios is preserved), and the remaining participants in
the establishment of Christ’s church in the nave; the female
saints in the “narthex”; the deacons Stephan and Euplos
in the niches of the prothesis and the diaconicon; and the
Holy Warriors on the western façade of the church. These
form an entourage for the depicted patron of St. George
in the lunette above the main entrance. All of these figures
represent the constitutive members of the ceremonial saintly
assembly of the personages valuable for the establishment
and continuous development of the Christian church.
The stylistic characteristics of the Kurbinovo painting are as
unique as its programme and iconographic configuration.
Since it is an unique example of the preferred stylistics
of the 12thcentury that was typified by a linearity of the
forms and the graphic ductus of the modeling, the fresco-
painting of Kurbinovo features impressively elongated and
elegant figures, refined gestures of the depicted saints, wavy
rhythm of the “floating” draperies, geometrically precise
design of the illustrated spectacles, and the vigorous
energy of the compositions, a balance of which was
achieved through the careful arrangement of the pictorial
tissue in the vistas (Fig. 12). The works of the leading
painter of the Kurbinovo atelier, who arrived in the region
of Prespa upon the invitation of the (for us) anonymous
khtetor after having worked in the Church of Saint

14 St. George in Kurbinovo, Harrowing of Hell

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 27
 Anargiroi in Kastoria, had certain signature features such
the filigree drawing (Fig. 13), the dynamic energy of the
movements, and the fluid character of the action within the
representations. Together, these have created an ensemble
in which an animated spirit of the forms comes together
with the intangible incorporeity of the graceful saints, and
the lavish vividness of the depicted sights. Showcasing the
unrestrained artistic flair of the Kurbinovo fresco-painters
as they saturate their depictions with a richly-animated
spirit are the refined figures with elastic movements and
fluid energy, the aura of restlessness surrounding the
painted shapes, and the glamorous draperies moving
dynamically to capture a sense of spiritual unease. The
energetic motion of Christ’s figure as he moves strongly
Selected Bibliography
15 St. George in Kurbinovo, Dormition (detail) Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
forward in the Harrowing of Hell (Fig. 14); the dramatic
tension of the protagonists in the Ascension (Fig. 15);
the spontaneity of the restless toddler depicted entering
Jerusalem; the vivacity of the scene depicting the Visitation;
the articulation of the Biblical and genre-components in
the composition of the Nativity; the anthropomorphic
character of the landscape elements in scenes such as the
Nativity, Raising of Lazarus, and the Harrowing of Hell;
and the esoteric echoes vibrating throughout the interior
of the church, all represent the unique contributions
made by the Kurbinovo masters towards the creation of
an original painterly structure infused with the light of an
uncompromising visual inspiration and expressive creative
imagination.
Sh. E. J. Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries, Program
of the Byzantine Sanctuary, Seattle and London, 1999
C. Grozdanov, L. Hadermann-Misguich, - Kurbinovo - ,
Skopje, 1992
C. Grozdanov, - Kurbinovo and other studies about
the fresco paintings in Prespa - (in Macedonian),
Skopje, 2006
E. Dimitrova, S. Korunovski and S. Grandakovska, -
Medieval Macedonia: culture and art in Macedonia,
millennial cultural and historical facts - (in Macedonian),
Skopje, 2013
E. Dimitrova, Cuia Culpa? Lapses and Misdemeanors
of Medieval Artist in Macedonia, Niš& Byzantium
Symposium, The Collection of scientific works XII,
Niš, 2014
E. Dimitrova, The Church of Saint George at Kurbinovo
(in Macedonian),Skopje, 2016
S. Korunovski, E. Dimitrova, Macedonia. L’arte medievale
dal IX al XV secolo, Milan, 2006
P. Miljković-Pepek, - About some building and artistic
problems in the church of Kurbinovo (in Macedonian) -,
“Likovna umetnost” 4-5 (1978-1979), Skopje 1979
L. Hadermann-Misguish, Kurbinovo. Les fresques
de saint Georges et la peinture Byzantine du XII siècle,
Bruxelles, 1975
A. J. Wharton, Art of Empire. Painting and Architecture
of the Byzantine Periphery. A Comparative Study of Four
Provinces, University Park and London
29
 The church of
St. Nikolas in the
Village of Manastir
- Elizabeta Dimitrova -

Within the 13th century’s treasury of Macedonian cultural heritage,

the Church of St. Nicolas in the village of Manastir in the region of
Mariovo, is a prime example of the earliest precisely-dated monuments
of the Byzantine artistic output. Given its architectural features and
the specific visual configuration of its fresco-ensemble, this church
represents a very significant link connecting the cultural legacy of
the 12th century with some of the artistic trends of the 13th century,
thus testifying to the crucial role played by the traditions of artistic
production from the beginning of the Palaiologan era. Located in the
harsh landscapes of the dry region of Mariovo beyond the cultural
metropolises of the Byzantine Empire, the church dedicated to St.
Nicolas in the village of Manastir grew intosome sort of an artistic
oasis in a rocky landscape identifiable by its grey-golden quarries
and rare traces of mineral elements. Surrounded by mountain ranges
and generating a microclimate of hot summers and mild winters, the
Mariovo region is now nearly devastated and socially ‘quiet’ in the face
of large-scale population migrations. This geographic region was once
dotted with several shrines in the course of the Byzantine and post-
Byzantine epochs. The oldest and most significant among these is the
Church of St. Nicolas—the temple of the traditional 13th-century
Macedonian art in the village of Manastir, the green eco-centre of the
entire Mariovo region.

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 31

 1 St. Nicolas in Manastir, View toward the north-east view of the church
32 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 33
 The extensive, calligraphically executed fresco-inscription
arranged along the side walls of the interior of the
church reveals very significant information regarding the
earliest history of this site. Denoting the names of both
commissioners who established a personal endowment on
this position, the inscription points to two building phases
of the edifice: the first from the 11th and the second from the
13th century. The first phase is dated in 1095 and attributed
to the protostrator (high military commander) Alexius, who,
according to historical sources, was a relative of the Byzantine
emperor Alexius I Komnenos. Awarded for his participation
in the defence of the Mariovo region against the devastating
campaigns of the western knights during the First Crusade,
the marshal Alexius received a pronoia (an estate),upon
which he commissioned the church of St. Nicolas, whose
ground plan has also been confirmed by archaeological
excavations of the site. In less than two centuries, a new edifice
was erected over the foundations of this older church in
1266, commissioned by the nobleman Ioanikios after he had
become a monk and taken the monastic name of Akkakios.
The frescoes of the new edifice, as the inscription informs us,
were painted in 1271 by the efforts of the deacon John, the
referendarius (secretary) of the Ohrid Archbishopric, who
had managed to gather “a large number” of skilled fresco-
painters. Thus, the khtetorial inscription not only sheds light
upon the dignitaries responsible for the two building phases
of the church, but also provides data for the precise dating
of its construction and renovation. Mentioning the name
and title of the leader of the atelier responsible for the fresco-
decoration of the temple in 1271, the inscription also reveals
the identity of the person who has produced the painting of
the Mariovo church. According to the analysis of historical
data, he was the Deacon John, who was a leading authority
on the artistic life on the Macedonian territory during the
13th century.
The architecture of the church of St. Nicolas in the village of
Manastir shows features typical of the traditional edifices of
the previous epoch, and is designed as a three-nave basilica
02 St. Nicolas in Manastir, View toward the east part of the church
without a narthex (approximately 15 x 11.80 meters).
Being the last of the Basilical ground plans in Macedonian
medieval architecture, the typological structure of the
Mariovo church points to the conservative architectural
matrices that survived until the Palaiologan epoch due to
deep-rooted tradition in rural medieval Macedonia (Fig.
1). Within the relatively wide interior of the edifice, the
three naves are connected by four pillars bridged by semi-
circular arches, thus creating a very compact united space.
34 The church of St. Nikolas in the Village of Manastir Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
A two-sided roof covers the middle aisle with side slopes
elegantly descending from the highest point of the church
over to the side aisles. On the east side of the edifice, the
tripartite altar space emerges into the exterior by three-
sided apses identical in their forms, one for each part of the
sanctuary: the main altar, prothesis, and deaconicon. The
main apse is twice as deep as its side consorts. On the west
side, the basilica does not have a narthex and thus belongs
to the so-called “shortened” type of basilicas. Further, its
base is closer in shape to a square than to a rectangle. As
a type of this archaic style of basilical buildings, which
are rare in the period after the 11th century, the temple of
St. Nicolas in Manastir is an example of the traditional
matrices maintained in medieval building.
The exterior of the Mariovo church also follows the
conservative design of the façade walls rooted in the
Macedonian architecture of the previous centuries. The
roughly-hewed stone placed in irregular horizontal rows
attached by an unequal amount of mortar, the attempt to
achieve a softer building elaboration of the apsidal part by
the use of brick and more equally placed façade elements,
as well as the discrete window perforations—all point to
the architectural influence of older churches such as St.
George in Kurbinovo. Nevertheless, the façades of the
Mariovo temple are decorated with shallow blind niches
circulating along the entire façades (Fig. 2). The calm
rhythm of the façade walls, whose sole decoration are the
blind niches; the modesty of the exterior seen in the lack of
larger and more lavishly executed windows; the relatively
rough building technique used for the outer walls; as well
as the unrefined material applied in the formation of the
church appearance all speak for a modesty of architectural
design. Among the most vivid components are the remains
of the false cloisonnéelaboration of the building opus
(regularly-hewed stone blocks framed with bricks in the
horizontal and vertical joints), constructed by a “fresco-
technique” on a white mortar foundation. This fresco-
simulation of a regular building component, by which
the rough execution of the façades was to be refined, also
refers to the building traditions of the previous centuries;
the technique is noticeable in the church of Kurbinovo as
well, as a way to achieve more attractive decorative effects
in buildings with modest architectural forms. Thus, even in
the domain of façade design, the temple of St. Nicolas in the
village of Manastir does not diverge from the tradition of
medieval builders, whose experience had been transmitted
consecutively in the buildings from the Palaiologan period.
35
 The programme of the fresco-painting in the church of St.
Nicolas in Mariovo matches the tripartite organisation of its
basilica’s interior architecture. Hence, a specific design has
been conceived for the depictions on the walls, arches, and
pillars, with the apsidal décor serving as the most solemn
exposition of the symbolical significance of the painted
themes. The traditional Eucharistic and liturgical contents
were depicted on the altar apse, while the arrangement of
the cycles in each of the aisles was appropriately designed
according to the interior of the church along with the
gallery of saintly figures and busts. Thus, beneath the figure
of the Virgin Orans praying for the salvation of human
kind flanked by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, in the
apsidal space are presented the Communion of the Apostles
as a symbolical commemoration of the Last Supper, as well
as the Officiating Church Fathers ceremonially glorifying
Christ’s sacrifice for the redemption of the sinful mankind.
Although the two compositions have a traditional
iconographic design, they feature a symbolic element
from an older tradition of Macedonian painting: in the
Eucharist of the Apostles, whose processions are led by a
white-haired Peter and a Semitic image of Paul, the two
disciples of Christ are depicted on the north wall as joint
in embrace in a visual allusion to the fraternal harmony
and unity of the Christian church (Fig. 4). If the episode
depicting the Kiss of Peace has been adopted from the
iconography of the Church of St. Panteleimon in Nerezi (
ca. 1166), the position of the new-born Christ on the altar
table in the painting of the Officiating Church Fathers
depicted in the lowest altar zone is a direct import from
the Kurbinovo painting (1191), with which the fresco-
painting in Manastir shares deeper thematic and stylistic
continuities. Images of six of the archbishops serving
the liturgical ceremony in the Kurbinovo paintings have
also been transferred to Manastir; depicted in procedural
postures, accompanied by a ceremonial rhythm, and
featuring signatures on texts written over unrolled
liturgical scrolls, these figures establish the first of many
functional relations between the two fresco-arrangements
from the 12th and 13th centuries.

03 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Part of the fresco-painted decoration in the temple

The painting in the church of St. Nicolas in Manastir is
the oldest example of the medieval painterly production
on the Macedonian territory in the 13th century.Created
in 1271 and executed by a larger crew of master fresco-
painters led by the Deacon John, the referendаrius of the
Ohrid archbishopric throne, the fresco-ensemble of the
Mariovo temple is a representative panorama of diverse
trends and painterly signatures, which exemplify the state
of artistic production in the Macedonian region during
the third quarter of the 13th century (Fig. 3).Conservative
in its panoramic constellation, traditional regarding the
use of already known iconographic matrices, moderate
in the inclusion of more modern visual elements within
the frames of the temple’s interior, the Mariovo painting
by the Deacon John and his team of fresco-painters
belongs withtheinstancesof Byzantine creativitythatdo
not standout in their creative imagination. However, we
should not neglect the evident fact that the leader of the
atelier, the ecclesiastical nobleman and referendarius
John, has allowed his associates to exercise freedom
of expression, which has resulted in several different
approaches to the temple’s visual aesthetic. Although the
masters who painted the fresco of the Mariovo church did
not all possess equal mastery in their painterly processes,
each of them was granted a portion of the fresco-painting
surface of the church. This artistic freedom available to
the fresco-painters, i.e. the possibility that each of them
could manifest his personal predispositions in the painted
programme, is in fact the greatest quality of the Mariovo
painting. As such, it reflects that the existing artistic trends
took root in the Macedonian region and “blossomed” into
their own true glow on the walls of the Mariovo temple. 14 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Communion of the Apostles (detail)

36 The church of St. Nikolas in the Village of Manastir Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 37
05 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Desis composition 06 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Khtetorial composition
 The Cycle of the Great Feasts is illustrated in the central
aisle of the Mariovo church, in the third register of the
fresco-decoration. The arrangement of scenes is taken
from the Christological thematic depicted in Kurbinovo.
The scene of the Annunciation, the two confirmations of
Christ’s Resurrection (the Myrrophoros at the Sepulcher,
the Harrowing of Hell), the Biblical illustration of events
related to Christ’s soteriological mission, as well as some
of the scenes of the Passion supplementing the epic story
of salvation almost entirely mirror its predecessor at
Kurbinovo. Busts of the Christian martyrs are depicted
beneath the illustration of the Christological cycle in the
second zone. A representative gallery of saintly figures can
be found in the lowest register. The domination of the Holy
Warriors is represented on the pillars. Impressive images
of the patron St. Nicolas and the Archangel Michael exist
on the eastern part of the north wall, while the images of
Christ, the Virgin, and John the Baptist in the Deisis scene
can be found in the eastern part of the south wall (Fig. 5). On
the surface of the semi-circular arches connecting the pillars,
expressive busts of the Old Testament prophets provide an
addendum to the soteriological character of the programme
with the portraits of the heralds of Christ’s mission.
The row of saintly figures and busts extends to the lower
zones of the north side. Here, the social and eschatological
thematic has found expression in the khtetorial composition
as well as in the illustration of the Last Judgment. In the
lowest register of the painted decoration in the eastern part
of the south wall, one can notice the remains of the khtetorial
fresco, in which the monk Akkakius, holding a replica of his
basilical endowment, follows St. Nicolas—his protector,
and the patron of the Mariovo church (Fig. 6). The third
zone of the fresco-decoration on the south wall is largely
devastated at present, but was arranged to contain the
composition depicting the Last Judgment. Some elements
of the original eschatological assembly illustrating the
event of the second coming of Christ as the judge of
mankind have been preserved, namely the representations
07 St. Nicolas in Manastir, St. Nicolas giving food to the widows and orphans
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
of Deisis with the images of Christ, the Virgin, and John
the Baptist, the apostolic tribunal, the angelic figures in
the central part of the south wall, the groups of the rightful
ones in the eastern part, and some portions of the sinners’
suffering in hell in the western part. The demolished parts
of the western and northern walls of the north aisle also
included the iconographic structure of the Last Judgment,
but only pale traces of this depiction survive in the wake of
poor preservation. The programme for the decoration of
the north aisle of the church, which includes the khtetorial
fresco and the illustration of the Last Judgment, leaves
no doubt that this part of the temple had the functional
character of a narthex, a spatial element of the church
in which the eschatological thematic and the khtetorial
composition was usually manifest. The absent narthex
has been substituted by the north aisle, which could thus
become a simulacrum for the non-existent western segment
of the church. Thus, despite lacking a structural element
such as the narthex, the temple of Mariovo was decorated
with intricate and profound elements that countered the
relative modesty of its architectural construction.
The illustration of the life of the temple’s patron St.
Nicolas received its place in the south aisle of the church,
where the remains of a dozen compositions with a more
traditional iconography have been preserved (Fig. 7). This
cycle illustrating the birth, education, and the missionary
activity of the respected bishop and protector of many
categories of believers (including widows, orphans, sailors,
and travelers) has been painted in the highest zone of the
walls and overlaps with the lower registers of the decoration
in the south aisle, which feature the figures and busts of
many other saints (martyrs, bishops, healers, and others).
On the west wall, one can see the majestic composition of
the Ladder of St. John Climacus figured as a stairway to
Heaven exclusively for those cleansed of human sins, while
the sinful others that do not find their way into heaven are
shown falling into an abyss and into the open jaws of a
hungry dragon (Fig. 8).
41
08 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Ladder of St. John Climacus(detail) 09 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Tree of Jesse (detail)
 Though this allegorical representation of the Ladder of St.
John Climacus in Manastir is not the oldest illustration of
this theme in Byzantine painting, it most certainly is its
earliest instance in Macedonian medieval fresco-painting.
The same is the case with the representation of the Tree of
Jesse—the genealogy of Christ’s ancestors—depicted in
the middle of the north wall of the south aisle (Fig. 9). A
vine tree takes root and spreads rhizomatically into many
branches from within the reclining figure of the biblical
righteous Jesse. Images of the Old Testament prophets
David and Solomon (Fig. 10) are on the central axis of the
vine tree, whose peak bears the image of Christ Emanuel
above the figure of the Virgin Orans and the busts of
11 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Tree of Jesse (detail)
10 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Tree of Jesse (detail) Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
the prophets and righteous ones. The hymnographs
are positioned on the subsidiary verticals of the scene
(Fig. 11). All of the above constitute the iconographic
composite of this oldest depiction of the Tree of Jesse
in Macedonian medieval fresco-painting. Symbolizing
the genetic relation between Christ and the Biblical
genealogy of the Old Testament kings as presented in the
texts of the wise prophets and venerated in the hymns of
the eloquent poets, the painting of the Tree of Jesse in
Manastir testifies to the desire to include iconographic
contents inspired by ecclesiastical poetry, hymnographic
literature, as well as the church sermons dedicated to the
Incarnation.
45
 The stylistic language of the fresco-painters in the
Church of St. Nicolas in Manastir can be placed
into four painterly categories distinguished by the
elaboration of the drawing, the modeling of the
forms, and the configuration of the pictorial masses
in the scenes. The first category includes the scenes of
the Christological Cycle, the compositions of the life
of St. Nicolas, some of the busts on the central aisle,
the Tree of Jesse, and the numerous saintly figures in
the church (Fig. 12).These have been realized by a
master dedicated to the graphicallylinear style made
manifest in the works of the masters of Kurbinovo
in the end of the 12th century. This category of
fresco-painter is dedicated to the maintenance of
the Kurbinovo painterly traditions well into the
13th century, is an irrevocable traditionalist, and a
supporter for retaining the subtle achievements of
the past into one conservative form (Fig. 13).
In the second category belongs the painter of the
images of the Old Testament prophets depicted on
the arches of the pillars between the main and the
side aisles with strong contours and majestic facial
characteristics, extremely shallow modeling, and
expressive portraiture (Fig. 14). This fresco-painter
is even more conservative than his colleague, taking
his inspiration from the monumental style of the
11th century and creating graphically-emphasized
saintly images. The third master represents the
most progressive category among the members of
the Mariovo painterly atelier. He has painted the
vivid figures of the patron St. Nicolas, the Archangel
Michael (Fig. 15), and the Deisis triad (Christ, the
Virgin and John the Baptist) with luscious facial
expressions by applying a plastic elaboration of the
corporal anatomy. Follower of the then-modern
“plastic style” in Byzantine painting, the creator of
the aforementioned representations has infused
a fresh painterly energy into the conservatively
conceived visual aesthetic of the Mariovo fresco-
arrangement.

13 St. Nicolas in Manastir, The Hermit Onuphrios

12 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Archangel Gabriel from the altar`s apse

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 47

14 St. Nicolas in Manastir, The Prophet Daniel 15 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Holy Archangel Michael
 The fourth master, creator of the figures of the Holy Warriors
depicted on the central aisle, has a special artistic signature
with origins in pictorial matrices of Kurbinovo; he has
depicted tall and elegant saintly figures enhanced by filigree
drawing, and imparted a noble visage with voluminous
modeling and mild facial expressions (Fig. 16). On
comparing the warrior figures depicted as noble and proud
knights in Manastir with the image of St. George represented
on an icon from Struga (1266-67), we can conjecture that
the fourth master could be the deacon and referendarius
John, whose signature exists on the aforementioned icon
and who was indicated as the leader of the artistic atelier in
the khtetorial inscription in the Mariovo church. Thus, the
role of this respected ecclesiastical nobleman and talented
painter who had gathered a diverse yet effective artistic crew,
surpasses the limits of his engagement in Manastir itself.
Selected Bibliography
16 St. Nicolas in Manastir, Holy Warrior Artemios Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
A key intellectual figure in the cultural life of Macedonia
during the seventh and eight decades of the 13th century,
the deacon, referendarius, fresco-painter, and artistic
commissioner John, whose atelier produced dozens of
fresco-ensembles on the Macedonian territory in this period,
is an icon for the kaleidoscopic stylistic assemblage of the
Mariovo painting. Supremely talented as a fresco-master,
with a unique artistic signature, modest in his intentions to
paint larger surfaces of the temple’s interior yet determined
to be clearly “visible” in the lowest register of the central
aisle, his wide visual optics allowed his colleagues and co-
workers an artistic freedom of expression. The deacon and
referendarius John is the most significant aesthetic reference
for the unpretentious, unimposing, yet vivid and stylistically
“multi-cultural” fresco-arrangement of the Church of St.
Nicolas in Manastir.
E. Dimitrova, S. Korunovski and S. Grandakovska, -
Medieval Macedonia - Culture and Art - , Millenia of
Culture and History (in Macedonian), Skopje, 2013.
E. Dimitrova, Seven Streams. The Stylistic Tendencies of
Macedonian medieval Fresco Painting in the 13th Century,
Niš & Byzantium Symposium, The Collection of
scientific works VI, Niš 2008.
S. Korunovski, E. Dimitrova, Macedonia. L’arte medievale
dal IX al XV scecolo, Milano 2006.
D. Koco, P. Miljković-Pepek, - Manastir -
(in Macedonian), Skopje 1958.
P. Kostovska, - Martyrs’ busts in the church of
St. Nicholas in Manastir, Mariovo -, Museum of
Macedonia, Collection of Essays, new serie Number 6,
Medieval art Number 3 (in Macedonian), Skopje 2001.
P. Kostovska, Reaching for Paradise – the Program of
the North Aisle of the Church of St. Nicholas in Manastir,
Mariovo, Cultural heritage Number 28-29 (2002-2003),
Skopje 2004.
P. Kostovska, The Concept of Hope for Salvation and
Akakios’ Monastic Programme in St. Nicholas at Manastir,
Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of
Byzantine Studies, vol. III, London 2006.
R. Hamann-Mac Lean, Grundlegung zu einer Geschichte
der mittelalterlichen Monumetalmalerei in Serbien und
Makedonien, Giessen 1976.
51
 St. Archangel Michael
Church in Varoš, Prilep
- Gordana Velkov -

Within the monastery complex of St. Archangel Michael is

the eponymous church located at Varoš, a neighborhood in
the present-day city of Prilep. It is considered one of the most
picturesque architectural, cultural, and religious buildings
from the medieval period in the region of Macedonia. The
monastery complex is positioned at the level of the medieval
fortified settlement known as Marko’s Towers (Markovi Kuli),
and surpasses all other medieval churches constructed during
the thirteenth century in Varoš, as well as those built across
the Pelagonian plain. The monastery complex is situated on a
terrace lying at the foot of the steep rocky slopes spilling down
from the mountain massif. The church of St. Archangel Michael
is placed centrally and oriented towards the northeast.

1 A panoramic view of the entire monastic complex,

including the church

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 53

1 A panoramic view of the entire monastic complex, including the church
 The depiction of the donor is most relevant to an under-
standing of how the church dedicated to St. Archangel Mi-
chael appears at present: the reconstruction in 1987 of the
exterior walls of the church was based on a model of the
church being carried by the donor. However, there is a dis-
crepancy in that the model of the church comprises a sin-
gle nave edifice surmounted by two widely visible domes,
whereas the church today is topped with only one dome.
Further difficulties arise in determining the original archi-
tecture of the church of St. Archangel Michael because it is
built into a natural niche in the rocks. In addition, several
reconstructions have been undertaken to remedy damages
caused by natural disasters.
The church in its present state is a single nave structure
topped by a dome. The interior consists of two bays, one
eastern and the other western. In the eastern bay of the ed-
ifice is an altar, which consists of an apse and two niches—
the protesis and the deaconicon. The western part contains
a two-sided door on its western wall. In the front of the en-
trance is an open porch erected on the man-made terrace
constructed over a stone base. Three monolithic marble
spolia-columns hold up the porch and its roof. The façade
features follow the character of all previous interventions,
so the specific opus of the medieval Byzantine church’s
“cloisonné” varies both in shape and quality, most often be-
cause of various walling patterns.

02 The main entrance of the church and the north facade, a view from northwest

The monastic quarters were built in the nineteenth century
on tall lecterns of stone, which allowed an ideal disposition
of monastic space to be achieved. The large porches offer a
perfect view of the Pelagonian plain (Figure 1). The resto-
ration in 1861 has preserved elements such as the historic
stratigraphy of the architecture and the original spiritual
ambience; only the bell towers to the north-west of the
church, which can be identified in old panoramic photo-
graphs of the monastery complex, are no longer extant.
The current physical appearance of the church building, with
its west dome and several other architectural solutions,was
finalized during the last conservation and restoration work
carried out in 1986 by the National Institute for Protection
of Cultural Monuments in the Republic of Macedonia.
The church of St.Archangel Michael rises above the cliffs and
the rocks, appearing to be a natural continuation of them.
The date of the original building, and the original shapes
of the much-modified church building, are both unknown.
The partially preserved frescoes on the interior walls of the
west aisle dated to the second half of the thirteenth centu-
ry (between 1270 and 1280), are from a period closest to
the church’s original construction. The stylistic features of
these frescoes suggest that these paintings could have been
done in the workshop of deacon John, the referendary of
the Ohrid Archbishopric. The frescoes painted by deacon
John’s workshop follow the late-Komnenian style and have
been an important part of Byzantine art history. Important
churches in the area around Prilep were decorated by the
same painters who gave local flavour to them in particular
historical circumstances, in which the Balkan region was
ruled by the Byzantine Empire. It remains unknown if the
pictorial program of the St. Archangel Michael Church in
Varoš, which includes various scenes of saintly figures and
rare representations of monks, was designed by the donor
of the church—the “great chartaluarius of the West”, John.
An inscription above the fresco found on the west wall
placed north from the entrance in the first zone identifies
the donor as John, the “great chartualarius of the West”. 03 The south facade, an overview of the various building phases

56 St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 57
 The north wall is the most representative part of the authen-
tic façade design, especially on the portion in which the
western and eastern parts of the church are connected with
a vertical joint, next to the wide arch and the walled niche
on the west (Figure 2). It is believed that here, in the central
part of the east wall, is the oldest masonry of the church.The
west and south walls on the other hand are fully plastered,
making it impossible to detect the original masonry. The va-
riety of masonry patterns of the south façade, the different
phases of the church construction, as well as the horizontal
and vertical deviations of the walls due to the conservation
interventions still generate questions about the architecture
of the original church and its single-nave plan (Figure 3).
The interior of the church has two distinctive parts—the
east and the west—with irregular shapes and dimensions.
Inside the church, the bays are framed with previously used
building material.There used to be an entrance on the north
wall at the end of the eastern bay next to the natural rock fun-
dament. Visible on both the south and the north façades of
the church are vertical joints running from top to bottom. It
is possible to say that the window vaulted with stone profiles
on the eastern bays of the south façade was opened during
the intervention in 1861, and was executed using “cloisonné”
technique during the conservation in 1987. The arch with its
04 The remains of the donor’s composition in the underground structure blind niche, and the two windows placed in the central part
of the south façade, were constructed before 1861, probably
during the first construction phase of the church.
The arches have been remodeled during the last recon-
struction work in 1987. These arches, with the blind niche
in the vault of the north façade, had been built to support
the construction of the dome. They confirm the authentic-
ity of the current architectural design of the church.
Today the edifice consists of an elongated rectangular space
composed of two irregular rectangular bays covered by a sin-
gle dome on the western side that dominates the structure.
The multiplication of building elements in the church, such
as the grouping of functional units expressed through the in-
tegration of the chapels in the building’s structure, indicate
the purpose of the church. Domes are often considered in
Byzantine architecture as an indispensable part of mausole-
ums. Thus, we can conjecture that the church of St. Arch-
angel Michael is a mausoleum-church containing several
functional units, and as such could have served as a tomb for
several dignitaries.
There are a few Byzantine mausoleum-churches in the
country: St. Panteleimon in the village of Nerezi, the
monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Veljusa, and the
monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Matejche. In
05 The Last Supper, south wall, XIII century
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
Kosovo, the Holy Archangels monastery in Prizren and
the Annunciation Monastery in Grachanica, anda part
of the monastic complex Pantocrator in Constantinople,
were also likely to have served as mausoleums, although it
is uncertain for which dignitairies these mausoleums were
built. This period, which lasts until 1261 when Macedonia
falls again under the Byzantine rule, was characterized by
consecutive changes of rulers from the neighboring states.
Thus, the turbulences in the religious life during this period
might have created a need to construct tombs for Byzan-
tine ecclesiastical dignitaries or other nobility in different
locations. A few decades after 1261, Macedonia became
an attractive destination for the aspirations of the Serbi-
an rulers. The head of the Ohrid diocese, the Archbishop
Constantine Cavasilas, stood firm to defend the Byzantine
canons and the unity of the church, and in 1346, half a cen-
tury after his death and during the rule of Tsar Dushan, the
Ohrid diocese was elevated in status to an archdiocese and
granted autocephaly.
The architecture of the church of St. Archangel Michael has
another element that is not very common for the Mace-
donian region: an underground floor (presently closed to
visitors). This suggests that the church was designed to be
built on two levels. It is believed that this underground level
is a tomb-chapel composed of two smaller rooms; its west-
ern part is close to the southern façade whose extension has
been integrated into the base of the eastern vault, and it be-
came a burial place for the donor and his family. On the parts
that have been preserved from the donor’s composition in
the underground structure, it is possible to identify, albeit
without certainty, a painted representation of St. Nicholas. It
has therefore been presumed that the chapel is dedicated to
this saint. The preserved fresco fragment contains a compo-
sition of three donor figures, one of which is female, wearing
lavish patrician clothes and guided by a figure presumed to
be that of St. Nicholas. The remains of this fresco show that
the figures have been stylistically represented with elegant
and graceful movements and are painted in beautiful colors,
just like the figures painted in the west bay of the church ded-
icated to St. Archangel Michael (Figure 4).
From the frescoes decorating the walls of the church of St.
Archangel Michael, painted between 1270 and 1280, only a
few compositions of two larger cycles have been preserved
in the higher zones of the west bay. These are a large num-
ber of individual saintly figures represented as full-length
figures or as busts in the lower zones, two symbolic liturgi-
cal compositions, and also the donor’s composition in the
lower zone of the west wall.
59
 The damage to the frescoes after the many interventions
unfortunately does not allow for the contents of the
compositions to be reliably analyzed. Their remarkable
and unique concepction can only be identified in the lu-
nette-shaped wall niches and in the lowest zones of the
west bay. Next to the church entrance located on the south
wall in the second zone are to be found selected scenes
from the Passion Cycle, such as the Last Supper (Figure
5) and Judas’ Betrayal. The west wall’s extension is deco-
rated with representations of the trial of Jesus before Pilate
(Figure 6), the Path to Golgotha, and the scene depicting
the Deposition from the cross. The compositions of the
second cycle, the fresco cycle of the Archangel Michael
to which the church was dedicated, are to be found in the
highest zones of the walls in the arches (Figure 7). The
south wall contains an image of the Hospitality of Abra-
ham; the west wall, the Archangel Michael and Jesus Navin
and Gideon’s Sacrifice (Figure 8); and the north wall, the
Miracle at Honae. The uniqueness of the fresco-program’s
concept is testified to by this particular selection of imag-
es that represents the Cycle of the Archangel Michael, in
which paintings inspired by written legends about the pa-
tron-saint are included along with Old Testament themes.
The first zone of the west bayshows the Holy Fathers
flanked by several episcopal busts and holy deacons. On
the lowest zone of the north wall is depicted the Vision of
St. Peter of Alexandri, an unusual location far away from
the altar space where it usually stands.

16 Jesus’ trial before Pilate, west wall, XIII century

07 St Archangel Michael and Jesus Navin and Gideon’s Sacrifice, west wall, third zone
(scenes from the Cycle of St Archangel Michael). In the second zone, Jesus’ trial before Pilate,
the Path to Golgotha and the Deposition from the Cross—scenes from the Passion cycle, XIII century

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 61

 a group of saints, holding a closed codex in his left hand,
and blessing with his right. The importance imparted to St.
Nicholas is in line with his role as a second patron-saint, if
we accept the assumption that the chapel in the sub-struc-
ture is dedicated to him. The cult of St. Nicholas in Mace-
donia developed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Therefore, this saint is often depicted as the leader of a
group of saints and warriors during this period. Next to
him is portrayed St. Stephen the Younger, a Byzantine
monk from Constantinople who fought against the icon-
oclastic policies and after his death became a prominent
iconodule martyr. The monk depicted next to him has not
been identified yet because his figure and the inscription
of his name have been badly damaged. Next to the window
on the south wallis a portrait of St. Onuphrius, who lived as
a hermit and is routinely depicted in the churches in Prilep.
Showed in an orans posture, ausual iconographic feature, he
represents the anchorites. It is possible to identify the four
standing saintly figures in the extension of the south wall to
the west. The first portrait in the row is that of Maxim the
Confessor, who was born in Constantinople and was one
of the most prominent Byzantine scholars and theologians,
authoringa number of polemical writings and religious
texts. Next to his portrait, there is a depiction of St. Sisoes
the Great, a famous Christian father pursuing asceticism in
the Egyptian deserts, well-known for his help with healing
against the spirits of wickedness. Next to St. Sisoes, as the
written name tells us, is St. John the Short, renowned for
his humility and obedience. The last portrait on the south
wall is of St. Stephen of Saint Sava Monastery. Given that
there are two saints named St. Stephen of Saint Sava Mon-
astery, it is difficult to determine which one is shown here.
On the west wall to the right of the entrance door in the
first zone, two saints are identically represented. The first
figure has been identified as St. Arsenius, while the second
remains unknown. The representation of this monk is very
unusual, as it is taken not from the list of saints mentioned
in the Synaxarium of the Great Church, but from a canon
dedicated to the saints composed by Joseph the Hymnog-
rapher, a talented and prolific Byzantine writer.

08 Gideon’s sacrifice, west wall, XIII century

On the south and north walls are representations of indi-
vidual saintly figures, located in the narrow strip between
the frescoes representing the Passion Cycle and the por-
traits of the standing monks in the first zone (Figure 9). On
the south wall from the east to the west are several portraits
of martyrs such as St. Talaleo de Egea, Sampson the Hos-
pitable, Ss. Cosmas and Damian. Above the window is an-
other portrait in the form of a pseudo-icon of Ss. Cosmas
and Damian, known as the Asian couple. In the extension
of the south wall to the west are the portraits of the prophet
Abdia, Saints Samon, Guriy, Aviv and Roman. Of the six
damaged representations of this ensemble of the busts on
the north wall, only the fourth representation can be iden-
tified as St. Auxentius, though not with absolute certainty.
The representations of the full-length figures of average
height, fourteen in all, are painted in the lowest zone of the
church and extend to all three sides of the walls. Most of
the representations of the saints can be identified by the
iconography and the preserved signatures.The artistic style
of the representations follows the conservative features and
aesthetic principles of the late Komnenian period. Skilfully
placed in the space, the figures are characterized by linear
precision and religious subtlety, which dominates not only
the representation of the characters but also the composi-
tion as a whole. The coloring is subordinated to the mo-
nastic spirituality arising from the life experiences of the
saints. The monastic status of the figures is evident from
their garments; they are all dressed in tunics of alternating
bright complementary tones from light-blue to dark olive,
white gowns adorned with small crosses and tied with a
thin rope belt, and dark brown mantles tied under the chin
with a knot.
Some of the holy monks are shown holding crosses and
unwrapped scrolls in their hands, while others are shown
holding wrapped scrolls. In the first zone of the south wall,
St. Nicholas is depicted in an episcopal garment leading 09 Portraits of martyrs in the second zone and depictions of holy monks in the first zone, south wall, XIII century

62 St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 63
 On the northern wall in the first zone, the full-length de-
piction of the monks, like the above-mentioned ones,
follow the canons, with the exception of the cross, which
has three cross-beams in their right hand and unwrapped
scrolls in their left ( Fig. 10) The identity of the monk de-
picted first from the west to the east remains unknown be-
cause his written name and portrait are damaged. The male
figure depicted next to him has been identified as St. The-
odore of Sykeon (a village in Galatia), who built a church
and a monastery dedicated to St Archangel Michael. He
was known to have a gift of healing and an ability to drive
away demons. He had travelled across the empire and had
been celebrated and eulogized by Nikephoros and Joseph
the Hymnographer. The third portrait is of St. Theodore
Graptus of Palestine. He and his brother Theophanes were
prominent iconodule martyrs sent to the Lavra of Saint
Sava. The last portrait is of St. Joseph the Hymnographer,
also known as Joseph of Sicily, one of the most famous
Byzantine hymnographers. Born in Sicily, St. Joseph creat-
ed many canons and liturgical works dedicated to the Holy
Mother of God. This ensemble of saintly figures—which
includes rare representations of monks renowned as great
hymnographers, iconodules, healers, and hermits—is bril-
liantly conceived by the organizer as a part of the entire
fresco decoration of the church. It is presumed that the
organiser of this exclusive ensemble might have chosen
the representations based on the poetic canons written by
Joseph the Hymnographer. On the basis of the above-men-
tioned stylistic and artistic elements of the frescoes painted
by Deacon John, the referendarius of the Ohrid Archbish-
opric and his co-workers in the churches of St. Nicholas in
Mariovo, and St. John the Theologian Kaneo in Ohrid, we
can conclude that the frescoes in the church of St. Archan-
gel Michael in Varoš were also painted by these influential
painting studios operating in thirteenth-century Macedo-
nia.

10 Depictions of holy monks as full-length figures: Unindetified monk, St. Theodore of Sykeoen, St Theodore Graptus
of Palestine, north wall, XIII century

64 St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 65
 The structural and artistic interventions that are to be
found in the eastern bay of the church on the north wall,
as well as the remarkable portraits of King Volkashin and
12 Portrait of King Marko, his son Marko on the western façade painted in the sec-
second half of the XIV century. ond half of the fourteenth century, testify to the contin-
ued interest in and the importance of the church and the
monastery dedicated to St. Archangel Michael (Figures 11
and12). These interventions make it difficult to find an an-
swer to many questions about the history of the church;
on the other hand, they still intrigue many Byzantinists, art
historians, theologians, and architects and make a study of
this extraordinary shrine so tempting and interesting. The
monastery, with its extraordinary setting overlooking the
Pelagonian plain, is also a site of significance for those seek-
ing spirituality.
Selected Bibliography
11 Portrait of King Volkashin,
second half of the XIV century.
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
Today, the church and monastery complex dedicated to St.
Archangel Michael is home to the largest number of female
Orthodox nuns in the Pelagonia-Prespa diocese. As an im-
portant cultural monument, the entire complex is under
the direct protection of the Ministry of Culture and the
Cultural Heritage Protection Office of Macedonia.
S. Korunovski and E. Dimitrova, ‘Byzantine Macedonia’,
- Art History from IX to XV centuries) - , Skopje, 2006,
(in Macedonian)
S. Korunovski, ‘A contribution to the study of architecture
of the monastery church of St. Archangel Michael in Prilep’,
Zograf 35, Belgrade, 2011 ( in Serbian)
D. Kjornakov, - The monuments of culture in
Macedonia - , Skopje, 1980 (in Macedonian)
S. Korunovski and E. Dimitrova, - Painting and
Architecture in Medieval Macedonia -, Skopje, 2011
(in Macedonian)
E. Dimitrova, S. Korunovski and S. Grandakovska,
‘ - Medieval Macedonia - ’, Millennia of Culture and
History, Skopje, 2013
P. Kostovska, ‘The monk figures in the church of
St. Archangel Michael in Varosh: A work toward their
identification’, Patrimonium Mk IV/9, Skopje, 2011
(in Macedonian)
67
 The church of
St. Nicolas in Prilep
- Elizabeta Dimitrova -

The latest monument of the 13th century artistic production in

Prilep is the church dedicated to St. Nicolas located in the suburb
of Varoš, the name given to the medieval settlement known for the
prolific architectural and artistic activity it saw throughout the
Byzantine epoch. However, unlike the surviving sacred edifices
that underwent many re-constructions causing their original
appearance to be altered and lost to present times, the Church of
St. Nicolas was “fortunate enough” to safely persist in its original
state beyond the medieval centuries. Of small dimensions and
compact architectural design, the church has notably lavish
façade walls with a unique painterly energy displayed in the
fresco-decoration, making it a true example of an unassuming
khtetorial achievement shot through with flashes of passion.
Constructed and decorated at the very end of the 13th century,
the temple dedicated to St. Nicolas in Prilep’s settlement of Varoš
stands as an incomparable monument that illuminates the
Byzantine epoch with the vivid sparks of its architectural design
and the kaleidoscopic visual aesthetic of its fresco-painting. It
stands out as a unique example when compared to the other
monuments from the same period.

1 A panoramic view of the entire monastic complex,

including the church
1 St. Nicolas in Prliep, North façade of the church
02 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Khtetorial inscription
According to a brief and declarative khtetorial inscription
preserved on the south wall of the temple’s interior (Fig.
2), the Church of St. Nicolas was commissioned by
the spouses Vego Kapza and Marija, who oversaw the
construction and fresco-decoration of the church till its
completion in November 1298. Given the dimensions
of the edifice, its one-aisled spatial disposition, and the
fact that its fresco was decorated by two masters working
simultaneously, it can be concluded that the painting of
the temple was begun in the spring months of 1298 and
was concluded, as per the inscription, by the end of the
very same season. This suggests that the temple itself was
probably constructed in the previous year, just prior to its
fresco-decoration, as the architectonic simplicity of the
modest one-aisle edifice would not have required several
building seasons. By implication, the couple Kapza and
Marija may have commissioned the construction and
fresco-decoration of this temple in 1298, thus creating one
of the most impressive sacral monuments from the 13th
century on Macedonian territory.
The Church of St. Nicolas in Prilep is a single nave building
with a semi-circular dome and approximate dimensions of
8.50 x 5.10 meters. The ground plan of the church takes
the shape of a slightly deformed rectangle, which ends with
a three-sided apse on the east side. The relatively simple
rectangular interior of the church is linked to the exterior
through the main entrance that opens on the west wall, by
one door in the north wall, and by yet another window-
like perforation in the western half of the south wall. The
compactness of the interior space would have ensured
that a proper amount of daylight would illuminate the
church. The edifice consists of massive walls with a seven-
meter high semi-cylindrical vault on top, which creates a
vertical amplitude and the impression that this is quite a
tall building. The height dominant over the horizontal
base of the edifice is the distinctive architectural feature of
the church. Its visual effect is achieved by a unique use of
decorative brick work on the façade.
The exterior of the Church of St. Nicolas consists of four
façade walls, the structure of which is divided into two
zones: a lower one, constituted of a plinth made of roughly-
hewed stone elements attached by mortar; and a higher
one, with a preponderance of ceramic components and an
exquisite decorative repertoire of visual ornaments (Fig.
3). Some researchers believe that the relatively high plinth
that rises up to a third of the total height of the church may
have belonged to an earlier building phase. According to
this argument, the only logical way to explain the design
differences between the lower and the higher parts of the
church is to account for the possibility that the plinth could
have been a part of an older structure of the edifice, which
was upgraded in 1298.
03 St. Nicolas in Prliep, West façade of the church

04 St. Nicolas in Prliep, The Virgin Orans (detail)
Although no original data exists to corroborate the
presumed older building phase of the temple, the drastic
formal differences between its two registers could point
to the fact that an older architectural phase did exist, and
that it envisaged a church of small dimensions and modest
construction techniques.
In contrast to the rough stone plinth, the high registers of
the edifice have a softer visual structure executed using
brickwork with numerous skilfully modelled decorative
ornaments (Fig. 1). Upon encountering these on his
74
travels to Macedonia in the second half of the 19th century,
the Russian archimandrite Antonin called the Church
of St. Nicolas an “expensive toy” to characterise the
association between the small dimensions of the edifice
and the overwhelming “ceramic” design of its façades.
This impression, that an over-accentuated ornamental
elaboration is naturally possessed by the brick as a building
material, extends to all four exterior walls of the church. The
brickwork on the east façade consists of three niches filled
with dense ornaments, among which one can recognize the
motifs of opus reticulatum and fish-bone. The double row of
The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep
regularly structured meanders on the south façade forms a is a shining example of medieval attempts to embellish
base for the three monumental niches filled with horizontally the unpretentious architectonic matrix of the edifice with
placed bricks crowned by the wavy rhythm of the decorative striking visual elements.
triangles above. On the north façade, the zones of decorative
In the temple’s modest interior, the painted decoration has
rhomboid rows and the triangular wave of angular motifs
a “chapel-like” yet very impressive painterly arrangements
form the pedestal for the semi-circular niches with
consisting of the altar decoration, the fresco-decoration
horizontally laid bricks, above which the variously placed
on the vault, as well as the scenes executed on the walls
brick blocks impart to the decorative rhythm of the façade
of the nave, all united by the expressive iconography and
a sense of untamed dynamics. The west façade on the other
dynamic stylistic signature of the master-painters. Here,
hand, ends with a false decorative tripartite window over
the ceremonial, frontal representation of the Virgin Orans
the vigorous opus of stone and brick. The vibrant energy of
in the altar apse (Fig. 4) is flanked by the vigorous figures
the decorative components permeates the entire space of
of the archangels Michael and Gabriel, while beneath them
the façades, the restless play of the horizontal and vertical
the officiating Church Fathers commemorate the sacrifice
lines contributes to the geometric balance of the brickwork,
of Christ at the altar of redemption. On the surface of the
while ceramic pots and other details have been inserted into
semi-cylindrical vault of the edifice are depicted sixteen
the façade’s vista. In making these features manifest, the
figures of Old Testament archpriests, kings, and prophets
masons of the Church of St. Nicolas have created the most
(Fig. 5), whose symbolic attributes as well as the texts
dynamic exterior in the Byzantine construction of the 13th
written on their scrolls refer to the role of the Virgin in the
century. Modest in dimension yet confidently inventive in its
decorative execution, the façade design of the Prilep temple Incarnation.
05 St. Nicolas in Prliep, The fresco-painting in the surfaces of the semi-cylindrical vault
 variant of the Last Judgment in the eastern part of the north
wall of the temple, is an argument in support of the funerary
accent of the fresco-decoration. Executed with a modest
iconographic composite of representations and displaying
a noticeable influence of the older sacred monuments in
the Macedonian territory, the painted programme of the
Church of St. Nicolas in Prilep continues in the tradition
of the fresco-painting of the region initiated by the temple
dedicated to St. Nicolas in the Mariovo village of Manastir.
The stylistic characteristics of the painting in the Church
of St. Nicolas in Prilep bear evidence that two groups of
masters carried out the fresco-decoration. The first group
worked on the altar, painting the Virgin in the conch of
the altar apse, the Officiating Church Fathers in the lower
register, and the patron’s representation of St. Nicolas in the
niche above the main entrance of the church. The second
group of masters produced all the remaining frescoes in the
interior of the church, including the Cycles of Christ, the
Old Testament images in the vault of the edifice, and the
gallery of saintly figures in the lowest zone of the temple’s
fresco-arrangement. Thus, the apparent difference between
the decoration of the altar and the nave of the church was
due to the fact they were each executed by two different
painterly ateliers bearing distinct stylistic signatures of
the master-artists. Since the stylistic characteristics of the
frescoes executed in the sanctuary show great similarities
with the fresco-decoration of Kurbinovo, and substantial
differences from the vivid frescoes painted on the
walls of the nave in the temple, older researchers of the
painting in the Prilep church have identified two different
chronological phases in the creation of the decorative
ensemble of the Church of St. Nicolas. In this context,
the painting in the altar was considered a product of the
Late Komnenian stage in the development of Byzantine
monumental painting (late 12th-early 13th centuries), while
the fresco-decoration of the nave was dated according to
the year mentioned in the khtetorial inscription (1298).
Thus, the assumption that there were two architectural
phases—an older one manifest in the roughly elaborated
plinth and the more recent one in the brickwork on the
upper part of the edifice—did not correlate to the two

06 St. Nicolas in Prliep, St. Nicolas, St. Theodor Tyro and St. Theodor Stratelates

On the walls of the nave, the Festal and the Passion cycles
are illustrated. They are accompanied by the gallery of
saintly figures, located in the lowest register of the painted
decoration of the church. Circulating throughout the
temple’s interior, the scenes illustrated in accordance
with the evangelical stories animate the Biblical history of
Christ’s soteriological mission, while the elegant figures
of the holy warriors and the proud representations of
the martyrs tell a story of the suffering and the sacrifice
for redemption infused with the visual energy of saintly
authority (Fig. 6).
While the fresco painting concept of the Church of
St. Nicolas is compact as directed by the available
space and the single nave disposition of the edifice,
its decoration possesses some inventive iconographic
features. Iconographic novelties are inserted in the almost
traditional composition scheme of the representations.
These accentuate the symbolical connotation of the vistas
and the emphasize the funerary dimensions of the painted
ensemble, adding a noble touch to the conventional
representations of Biblical visions. For instance, the
defeated serpent-like monster depicted beside the feet of
Christ in the Baptism scene alludes to the defeated evil
from the symbolical context of Christ’s Harrowing of Hell,
thus uniting the images of Christ’s initiation in the waters
of the river Jordan with those of the soteriological mission
of the resurrected Messiah. The tense atmosphere around
the Virgin’s deathbed in the depiction of her Dormition is
emphasized by the sad expressions of the apostles gathered
around her in the last service before she is released into
eternity. A unique contribution of the temple’s painting to
Byzantine iconography is to be found in the detail of the
Virgin’s soul, which is painted exiting her mouth in the form
of a newborn and entering the arms of the Christ bent over
her deathbed (Fig. 7). The explicitly illustrated moment of
death in the Virgin’s last breath and Christ’s gentle gesture
in accepting his mother’s soul in order to take her to heaven
is one of the most impressive iconographic elements of the
emphasized funerary dimension of the fresco-ensemble
in the church. Further, the “doubling” of the symbolic of
Christ’s resurrection through the two scenes referring
to his soteriological “revival”—the representation of the
Myrrophores at the Sepulchre and the Harrowing of Hell
(Fig. 8)—is an exemplary contribution to the illustration of
the Biblical thematic by the emphasis on the eschatological
moment. That the resurrection scenes are localized just
above the representation of the Deisis, with the images of
Christ, the Virgin, and John the Baptist as a chamber-like 07 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Dormition

76 The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 77
18 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Harrowing of Hell

19 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Archangel Michael

 the pictorial oratorio of the fresco-painters from Kurbinovo.
Ornamental in their character and traditional in their artistic
impression, the frescoes in the altar of St. Nicolas are the last
to witness the favoured Kurbinovo aesthetic that remained
influential throughout the 13th century.
The fresco-painting in the nave of the Church of St.
Nicolas exudes visual characteristics entirely different
from the traditional spirit of the altar-painting(Fig. 10).
The structural elements of the painted decoration of the
nave in the temple at Prilep include scenes consisting of
many figures arranged in small groups, the fervent mobility
of the figures animated by a tense rhythm and exaggerated
motion, the expressively-executed details galvanising the
visual narration of the vistas, and the anxious gestures
of the protagonists in the illustrated stories. Dialogues
and disputes, confrontations and conflicts, gestures and
emotions constitute the visual argument of the depictions,
which are imbued with the iconographic details and scenic
elements in the abundant, almost “overpopulated”, and
optically over-saturated visage of the frescoes (Fig. 11).

10 St. Nicolas in Prliep, the painting in the nave of the church

supposed phases of the fresco-decoration in the interior
of the temple; also not taken into consideration was
the abrupt discontinuity between the first architectonic
phase in the lower and the more recent one in the upper
part of the edifice vis-à-vis the first painting phase in the
east and the more recent one in the remaining parts of the
church. However, a different hypothesis for the story of the
creation of the fresco-decoration of the temple dedicated
to St. Nicolas can be found in the aesthetic of the frescoes
painted by the two ateliers.
The frescoes adorning the altar space show features of late
Komnenian painting, the most representative example
of which is the decoration in the Church of St. George in
Kurbinovo. Among their most noticeable “borrowings” from
the influential visual aesthetic of Kurbinovo are the linearity
of the drawing, the graphics of the forms, the shallow way
in which the figures are presented, and the over-accentuated
movements of the draperies of the two angels flanking the
Virgin’s figure in the conch of the Prilep temple (Fig. 9).
For the many generations of fresco-painters at active work
until 1300, the painting of Kurbinovo represented an eternal
inspiration suffused with the power of an irrepressible
creative urge and unavoidable painterly proclivities. Creating
elegant forms and floating movements, combining the linear
structure of the forms with the kinetic energy in the dynamic
composite of the depictions, the followers of the visual
aesthetic of Kurbinovo have enriched the artistic repertoire
of the 13th century with remarkable “retentions” from one
fresco-ensemble whose stylistic magnitude was unparalleled.
Therefore, the creation of the altar decoration in the Church
of St. Nicolas in Prilep should not be chronologically placed
in the 12th century, but within the frames of the accentuated,
specifically-Macedonian dependence on the aesthetic
matrixes of Kurbinovo, which offered its last creative
examples in the end of the 13th century. Although “faded”
in relation to their famous predecessors from Kurbinovo,
the linear forms of the frescoes in the altar of the church of
Prilep are the dignified guardians of the visual echo from 11 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Crucifixion

80 The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 81
 Since the rules and regulations of fresco-painting in
Byzantine temples were such that the fresco-decoration
was started from the dome and the altar and continued on
the nave of the edifice, there is no doubt whatsoever that
the altar of the temple was the first to be decorated when
fresco-painting at the church began and shows the stylistic
features common to the conservative trends nurtured by
the more traditionally-minded master painters. Possibly
too old-fashioned for the khtetors’ taste, it was likely that
these fresco-painters were released from further obligation,
after which the task of painting fell to two fresco-painters
with “more novel”, more vivid, and most certainly more
impressive painterly repertoires. They have taken over
the fresco-painting of the church and decorated the nave,
which represents a step forward in the sphere of synergistic
cultural production where influences from the painterly
experiences of the past unite with the luscious painterly
energy of contemporary tendencies. Thus, the fresco-
decoration of the Church of St. Nicolas in Prilep is a visual
monument to the art of two ateliers, as well as to two
different painterly approaches, one conservative and the
other bold and innovative, which were united at the very
of the 13th century within the dimensionally-modest yet
aesthetically-exciting interior of the temple at Prilep.

12 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Mocking of Christ (detail)

The picturesque painterly expression of the fresco-painters
from Prilep has several recognizable flourishes such as
the suggestively shaded saintly images, the vivid emotive
palette of the participants in the illustrated Biblical events,
the corpulent figures filling the vistas with the dynamism
of their rhythmic motion, the evocatively-drawn scenic
landscape that forms the backdrop to the evangelic
narratives, and the saturated spectrum of colours and
tonal shades (Fig. 12). The panorama painted on the nave
is home to several impressive visual moments: the group of
sleeping soldiers painted beside the empty tomb is visual
diminutive that reinforces the larger narrative of the scene
depicting the Myrrophores at the Sepulchre (Fig. 13); figures
of excited witnesses intensify the action in the composition
the Rising of the Dead Lazarus; a tense atmosphere is created
by the images of the crowd gathered around Christ in the
spectacle depicting the Betrayal; the figures of the Pilate and
the Jewish representatives in front of the palace in the scene
depicting Christ before Pilate conjure up an affective discourse
(Fig. 14); the soldiers accompanying Christ on his way to
Golgotha are painted with evocative gestures (fig. 15) as are
the sad expressions of the weeping women in the scene of the
Lamentation. A fusion of different elements, tendencies, and
stylistic trends that absorb the preceding painterly experiences
of the 12th and 13th centuries make the fresco-decoration
of the Church of St. Nicolas an example beyond compare
of Byzantine painting at the end of the 13th century, one
with no parallels in the Byzantine cultural sphere as a whole.
Keeping in mind the unique stylistic features of the frescoes
in the altar of the church and those on the walls of the nave
with respect to the chronological reference preserved in
the khtetorial inscription, it can be said that the inscribed
date of November 1298 refers to the completion of the
entire decoration of the temple at Prilep. 13 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Myrrophores at the Sepulchre

82 The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 83
 Selected Bibliography B. Babich, The church of St. Nicholas in the village of Varoš
(Prilep), Memorials of the medieval and more recent
history of Macedonia Volume IV (in Macedonian),
Skopje 1981
E. Dimitrova, S. Korunovski and S. Grandakovska, -
Medieval Macedonia - Culture and Art - , Millenia of
Culture and History (in Macedonian), Skopje, 2013
E. Dimitrova, Seven Streams. The Stylistic Tendencies of
Macedonian Мedieval Fresco Painting in the 13th Century,
Niš& Byzantium Symposium, The Collection of
14 St. Nicolas in Prliep, Christ before Pilate
scientific works VI, Niš 2008
V. Korać, The two construction phases of the Church of
St. Nicholas in Prilep, A collection dedicated to Boško
Babich (in Serbian), Prilep 1986
S. Korunovski, E. Dimitrova, - Macedonia. L’arte
medievale dal IX al XV siecolo - , Milano 2006
P. Kostovska, The prophetic figures and their quotations
in the church of St. Nicholas in Varoš, near Prilep,
Balcanoslavica 25, Prilep 1998
P. Kostovska, The fresco program of the Church of
St. Nicholas in Varoš near Prilep and its function as a
funerary chapel, Journal of Medieval Art Number 3 (in
Macedonian), Skopje 2001
P. Miljkovic-Pepek, Sur la chronologie de l’èglise de saint
Nicolas à Varoš près de Prilep, Studien zur byzantinischen
Kunstgeschichte, Festschrift für Horst Hallensleben zum
15 St. Nicolas in Prliep, 65. Geburstag, Amsterdam 1995.
The Road to Golgotha
(detail)
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 85
 The Church of the
Dormition in the
Monastery of Treskavec
- Elizabeta Dimitrova -

If one wishes to visit medieval Macedonia virtually and for a

moment to feel the mystical spirit of the Byzantine Orthodoxy,
the first stop on the trail going into the spiritual depths of faith
will be the Monastery of Treskavec, located a dozen kilometers
northwest of Prilep and situated beneath the silver rocky ranges of
Zlatovrv, the highest mountain peak in the region of Pelagonija.
Surrounded by a landscape of untouched nature and protected
by the powerful stone ranges of the Babuna mountain, with a
church dedicated to the Dormition and the economic facilities
drawing the medieval isohypses of the monastic complex,the
Monastery of Treskavec represents a true pilgrim’s “Mecca” in
the geographic focal point of Republic of Macedonia. Patronized
and protected by the many medieval rulers named in the historical
documents (the Byzantine emperors Andronicus II and Michael
IX, the Serbian kings Milutin, Stephan Dechanski, and Dušan),
the Monastery of Treskavec was a centre of active monastic
life, of a lively cultural production nurtured in the monastic
scriptorium, as well as a site with rich religious significance for
the inhabitants of Prilep and Pelagonija at large. During the
Ottoman period, Treskavec continued to exist as a centre of the
Virgin’s cult, visited both by the Orthodox believers and by select
representatives of the Turkish population who paid their respects
to the sacred elements of the monastic complex.

86 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 87
 1 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, The architectonic complex of the Treskavec Monastery
88 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 89

02 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, View from the north-west toward the monastic complex
Its recreation in the 19th century’s spirit of cultural
revival has allowed the Monastery of Treskavec to
continue its existence as a monastic location till today.
In its eight-century-long existence, the monastery has
undergone several dramatic experiences with unfortunate
consequences including numerous devastations to its
architecture and fresco-decoration, and the loss of the
original monastery inns in a fire. Yet it remains one of the
most remarkable sacred locations and religious hotspots
in the Macedonian territory. The complex architecture
of the monastic catholicon, with its multi-layered fresco-
decoration whose chronological frame traverses six
centuries; the abundant history of its medieval and post-
medieval activity; and the hospitality of the kind monk
Kalist toward all believers, visitors, travellers, and tourists
make the Monastery of Treskavec a key venue in the lively
map of Macedonian cultural and artistic heritage.
90
The architectural features of the Church dedicated to the
Dormition of the Virgin in the Monastery of Treskavec make
it one of the most complex sacred sites in the Macedonian
region. It has been renewed and rebuilt several times,
and at present contains elements of several continuous
architectural phases spanning a period of eight centuries
(from the 13th to the 20th century) (Fig. 1). Although it not
possible to determine the precise date at which architectural
activities began at this site, the typological structure of
the ground plan and the structural characteristics of the
distinctive phases offer sufficiently relevant pointers to the
dating of each separate architectonic phase of the church
complex. The oldest phase is represented by the main
church, built on a cruciform plan with a dome supported
by angular pilasters. This compact cross-shaped ground
plan was supplemented by an additional bay on the eastern
and western sides, vaulted by semi-cylinders; the eastern
The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec
side formed an altar apse in the exterior. Judging by the
archaeological finds and the typological configuration of
the edifice, it is possible to date this oldest building phase
of the church at the end of the 12th or the first decades of the
13th centuries. Soon after the construction of the church, a
narthex was added on its western side, thus rendering the
church into a compact cruciform edifice with a narthex,
which forms the typological matrix for the oldest phase in
the Treskavec catholicon.
In the second phase, an ambulatory attached to its south
and west sides was added to the cross-shaped church. The
two arms of the newly built ambulatory were less wide
than the existing church and formed annexes to the older
building, the function of which cannot be determined
precisely. The spatial articulation, the placement of the
dome in the south-western corner of the edifice, and a
comparative analysis of the ambulatory in Treskavec vis-à-
vis similar examples in the Byzantine world indicate that
there is a great probability of the construction having drawn
architectural influences from Thessaloniki and Epirus at
the turn of the 14th century. Following the contemporary
trends of the Byzantine building activity at the turn of the
centuries, Treskavec came to be a representative example
of the progressive Palaiologan architecture, which spread
from the larger artistic metropolises to the monastic
communities in the provinces. Several decades later, a one-
aisled chapel with a domed narthex was erected by the
north side of the oldest church, thus creating a counterpart
to the already-existing dome in the corner of the previously
built ambulatory. In this manner, the twin-domed exo-
narthex was formed. This had three bays—one central and
two subsidiaries vaulted by octagonal domes. On the basis
of the fresco-decoration dated ca. 1340 preserved in the
side compartments of the exo-narthex, it can be concluded
that the exo-narthex of the church was designed during the
first three decades of the 14th century, when the edifice grew
into a coherent unit with a narthex and an exo-narthex, a
north chapel, and an annex on the south side.
The next phase of the structural enlargement of the
Treskavec church is represented by the chapel, which was
commissioned by the nobleman Gradislav, a member of
Dušan’s court, next to the south-east corner of the church
and attached to the southern annex of the edifice. Keeping
in mind the evidence of the relatively precise dating of the
khtetorial composition preserved in the fresco-decoration
of this chapel during the 1360s, this building can be
chronologically placed in the middle of the century and can
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
be said to represent the last phase in the construction of
the medieval ecclesiastical complex. However, the chapel is
not the last building stage in the architectural development
of Treskavec since additional construction on the church
also continued during the Ottoman period. Thus, the first
renewal, i.e. the rebuilding of the upper construction and
of the north wall of the main church, took place during the
second half of the 15th century. In the first half of the 16th
century, the eastern altar part of the church was renewed
after having being demolished previously. The closed porch
on the south and west sides of the church was built during
this period, but the chapel of the nobleman Gradislav,
which also suffered demolition, was unfortunately not
reconstructed.
The last building interventions present in the current-day
architecture of the Treskavec church (Fig. 2) took place in
the 19th century. These include the demolition of the west
wall of the main church, by which a spatial integrity along
the east-west axis was achieved, as well as the rebuilding of
the upper vaulted surfaces of the narthex, through which the
structure received a blind dome. According to the available
data, and judging by the images in the khtetorial composition
painted on the porch, the aforementioned activities can be
attributed to the abbot Visarion and the monk Ambrosius,
who revived the monastery during the third decade of the
19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the last
constructions to the church were carried out. These enabled
the unification of the interior along the north-south axis
by the opening of window perforations on the north and
south walls of the narthex, thus connecting it with the north
chapel and the south aisle, and creating the effect of a three-
aisled church edifice. All these building phases, as well as the
smaller architectural interventions, testify to the continuous
efforts of known and unknown commissioners committed
to maintaining the Virgin’s temple in the Monastery of
Treskavec.
Multi-layered and complex as its architecture, the painting
of the Treskavec Monastery is one of the most complex
fresco-arrangements executed on the Macedonian territory
during the medieval epoch. Painted over a long period—
through the medieval centuries, the post-Byzantine era, and
the age of the cultural revival in the second half of the 19th
century—the decoration of the Virgin’s temple reflects the
programmatic and iconographic innovations, as well as the
stylistic illuminations specific to different times, all of which
come together in the mystical ambience of the monastic
catholicon.
91
03 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, Heavenly Court 04 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, The noblemen figures of the Holy Warriors Mercurius and Procopius

05 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, The image of Christ Emmanuel
Thanks to the khtetorial endeavours, the efforts of monastic
fraternities, and the creative imagination of the iconographers
and painters, the fresco-decoration of the Treskavec church
has come to reflect the artistic trends of the past six centuries.
In it, the aesthetic variations transform into one lavish, vivid,
and visually exciting visage. The oldest preserved frescoes
in this multi-layered painted panorama are located in the
domes and on the wall surfaces of the exo-narthex, for
which the following programme was formulated: a uniquely
designed Heavenly Court, an extensively illustrated Church
94
Calendar, and an impressive gallery of saintly figures
located in the lowest register of the fresco-decoration.
The iconography of the Heavenly Court (Fig. 3) is
illustrated according to the 9th verse of the 45 Psalm of King
David (Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of
Ô’phir).It is divided into three horizontal registers in the
north dome of the exo-narthex. In the summit of the dome
one can see the bust of Christ dressed in an imperial outfit
and crowned with a kamelaukion (dome-like crown); the
Hetoimasia (the prepared Throne) is placed at the foot of
The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec
the dome and is approached by the Queen accompanied by
a celestial hierarchy (seraphs, cherubs, thrones, dominions,
powers, principalities, archangels, angels, and virtues);
while the eight figures of noblemen standing in two groups
are painted on the drum (Fig. 4) arranged in the direction
to the throne and led by the Holy Warriors Demetrius
and George.Since it is the oldest preserved example of
the Heavenly Court in the history of Byzantine painting,
this iconographic unit depicted in the north dome of the
Treskavec exo-narthex establishes the basic conceptual
markers for the illustration of the Old Testament verses
that refer to the God’s Anointed and his chosen one in
the ceremonial ritual in the celestial premises. Elements
of the oldest depiction of this composition in medieval
painting are the King and his throne; the angelic beings
as his heavenly entourage; the lavishly-clothed significant
one; as well as the King David, author of the Biblical verses,
whose image is partly visible beside the prepared Throne,
the ritual procession toward it, and figures of the noble elite
that form a ceremonial entourage to the anointed ruler in
the courtly ceremony of his crowning. When compared to
the later representations of the Heavenly Court executed
in the Church dedicated to the Holy Mother of God in
Zaum Monastery (1361) and in the church dedicated
16 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, Church calendar, the representation of St. Jacob the Confessor (24 of March),
the Annunciation (25 of March) и the Death of the twenty-six Gothic martyrs (26 of March)
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
to St. Demetrius in Marko’s Monastery (1376-77), the
Treskavec painting bears the closest resemblance to the
sacred atmosphere of the courtly ritual described in the
verses of the psalm of King David.
At the summit of the south dome of the exo-narthex,
the bust of Christ Emmanuel as a young boy is depicted
(Fig. 5), and is a reference to the beginnings of his public
activity with the first sermon held by him in the Synagogue
in Jerusalem. Around the image of Christ at the foot of
the dome, an illustration of the events of the Church
Calendar covers the wall surfaces in the middle register
of the painted interior of the exo-narthex. Starting with
the month of September when the calendar begins at the
beginning of the Byzantine liturgical year, this cycle of
nativities and martyrdoms, heralds and executions depicts
the festive days and the celebrations of the Christian saints
through the numerous scenes with vivid iconographic
content (Fig. 6). From the original corpus of the yearly
liturgical calendar, the compositions depicting the months
of January, March, April, June and August have been
preserved. Accompanying some of them are the passionate
proclamations of the enjambed dodeca -syllabic verse of
Christopher of Mytilene, a Constantinopolitan poet of the
11th century.
95
 examples of the greatest qualities of the Treskavec fresco
painters, the monolithic conception and elaborate painterly
signature of their creative vision. The graceful figures of the
court noblemen moving with ritual elegance painted on
the drum of the north dome, the spasm-like gesticulation
of the Sebaste Martyrs dying in the freezing waters of the
lake at the foot of the south dome, the tense atmosphere
of the decapitation of the Baptist in the aftermath of
Salome’s Dance painted on the western wall of the north
part of the exo-narthex, and the ceremonial clarity of the
scene depicting the Annunciation on the western wall of
the south part as elements of the calendar’s church history,
are just some of the noteworthy examples of the artistic
mastery of the Treskavec fresco-painters. The striking
facial expressions of the young Ananias and Azarias, the
suggestive expression of the old St. Sava Stratilates on the
southern wall of the south part, and the ascetic radiance
of the white-headed and sunburned hermits depicted on
the western wall of the north part of the exo-narthex, add
exquisite finishing touches to the works of the Treskavec
masters. A somewhat stricter stylistic expression is reflected
in the nearly two-decades younger painting preserved on
the wall which used to be the west façade of the chapel
erected by the nobleman Gradislav, where the elements of
the khtetorial composition are still visible (Pic. 8).

17 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, Sts. Misail, Ananius, Azarius and the prophet Daniel

In the first zone of the painted decoration is displayed a
very impressive gallery of saintly figures of different types
such as holy warriors, monks, hermits, martyrs, and Old
Testament characters (Fig. 7).Their spatial placement
within the fresco-arrangement corresponds to the dates
of the painted Orthodox calendar, arranged in the higher
zones of the painted decoration. Thus, with the illustration
of the Heavenly Court, the Menologion (Church calendar),
as well as the saintly gallery, a united pictorial vision of
the King of Kings was created, denoting His role among
the believers through the most significant events and the
most celebrated characters in the history of the Orthodox
church. Thus, with respect to its inventive iconographic
choices and the complexity if its visual design, the fresco-
decoration in the domes and the wall canvases of the
exo-narthex of the church painted ca. 1340 belongs with
the most remarkable fresco-arrangements executed in
Macedonia in the 14th century.
Given its stylistic characteristics, the Treskavec painting
from the first half of the 14th century could be placed in the
category of the classicist creation that follows the aesthetic
instructions of the artistic works created during the early
decades of the century. The anatomically well-designed
saintly figures, their plastic modelling, the balanced rhythm
of their movements, the immaculate organization of the
compositions, as well as the luscious colouring saturated
with cold tones, characterise the masters’ painterly
process. The skilful staging of the scenes, the carefully
calculated perspectives of the vistas, the elegant motion
of the depicted characters, as well as the delicate tone of
the saint’s images in which noble crystal ecru and olive
green-grey shadows make for a mellow colour scheme are 18 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, the image of the nobleman Gradislav from the khtetorial composition

96 The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 97

19 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, Prayer at Gethsemane and the Betrayal of Judas
The precise drawing, the fluid contour, the saturated colour
palette, and the white optical accents in the formulation of
the donor’s image, testify to a master inspired by the older
classicist paintings of his predecessors. The two busts of
Christ and the Virgin painted on the northern wall of the
south space of the temple share nearly the same chronology.
Also created by the end of the 14th century was the fresco
with the images of the Virgin with the young Christ,
placed in the niche of the west entrance leading to the exo-
narthex, along with the figures of St. John the Baptist and
St. John Chrysostom depicted on the south façade of the
edifice. The figures of the Virgin with the young Christ and
of St. Nicolas, located in the eastern part of the south wall
in the nave of the church, were also illustrated during the
14th century.
A new layer of fresco-painting was done on the nave of
the temple when the upper construction and the north
wall of the edifice were rebuilt during the second half
of the 15th century. Judging by its stylistic features, the
painting could be dated to the eighth or ninth decades of
98
10 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, Christ the Archpriest in the Deisis composition (detail)
the century. The elements of the painting in the nave were
images of the Christ Pantocrator, the Heavenly Liturgy,
the prophets and the evangelists as part of the dome
décor, the Great Feasts in the area under the dome, the
martyrs’ busts in the middle register, and the Passion of
Christ in the second zone (Fig. 9). The lowest register of
the north wall contains a depiction of the Imperial Deisis,
in which the images of Christ as Archpriest (Fig. 10), the
Virgin Paraklesis (Intermediator) and John the Baptist,
are accompanied by a choir of saintly figures including
the holy warriors (Fig. 11), the healers, the apostles, the
monks, and the hermits. This programme determined
by the masters, who were the creators of the fresco-
arrangement in the nave of the Virgin’s temple, conveys the
desire to visualize the story of the messianic role of Christ
in a manner that includes the two basic components of
the soteriological dimension of the Savior: The Biblical
testament of the evangelic events through the illustration
of the Christological cycles, and the eschatological
reference to the Last Judgment through the composition
The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec 11 Dormition of the Virgin – Treskavec, St. Mercurius (detail)

12 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec,
St. Demetrius (detail)
13 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec,
the khtetorial inscription in the altar
and the representation of the Deacon Roman
of the Deisis. As the Deisis is depicted in its “imperial”
variant, and the holy warriors in noblemen’s garments
(Fig. 12), both can be seen as drawing inspiration from
the older Treskavec painting executed in the north dome
of the exo-narthex. However, in contrast to the painterly
pedantry of the older masters, the creators of the fresco-
decoration in the nave of the church demonstrate a more
direct pictorial method owingto their aesthetic inclination
toward the Kastoria school of art that flourished in the
last decades of the 15th century. Evidence of the artistic
temperament of the fresco-painters of the programme in
the nave can be seen in the nonchalant stances of the holy
warriors who spontaneously rest on their maces, the vivid
compositional structures in the illustration of the Passion
events, and in the directness of the vistas that give visual
shape to the Biblical descriptions. In contrast to the Greek
letters on the compositions and the images represented in
the exo-narthex, elements of the fresco-ensemble in the
nave of the Treskavec temple are signed with Old Church
Slavonic inscriptions. In that, it is a representative product
of the artistic traditions nurtured by the Slav population
during the tense period of the Ottoman rule.
The next layer of fresco-painting was applied after the
renewal of the altar space, which, according to the khtetorial
inscription preserved beside the niche of the deaconicon (Fig.
13), took place in 1570 with the support of Stojan Hrančev
and his wife during the time of the Abbot Pachomijand and
the Bishop Gregorius. An image of the Virgin with Christ on
a throne flanked by two archangels, the dynamic depiction
of the Communion of the Apostles and the Officiating
Church Fathers, the image of Christ Ancient of the Days
surrounded by angels and accompanied by archangels
and seraphs, are elements of the altar decoration, whose
iconography followed 16th-century design conventions
in the sanctuaries of Orthodox temples. The tonal modes
through which the angelic images depicted in the Officiating
Church Fathers are shaped, the spontaneous motion of the
figures participating in the Communion, the oval contours
of the archbishops’ portraits in the Liturgy, and the discrete
drawing of the silhouettes of the heavenly beings depicted
in the vault of the altar, are visual clues showing that the
painters took creative inspiration from the artistic signatures
of their colleagues who composed the painting in the nave of
the church. The folding wood-carved door of the Treskavec
Monastery is dated to the 16th century and is a product of the
Prilep-Slepche wood-carving centre (Fig. 14), whose works
have adorned the sacred edifices in the region of central
Macedonia. This folding door is decorated with the motif of a
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
braided ornament with stylized floral elements, which frame
the rectangular fields containing saintly representations and
zoomorphic symbolism. On the total thirty-six rectangular
fields, the paintings of exotic animals in the lower part and
of the saintly figures in the upper part of the door follow the
iconographic concept typical of the Prilep-Slepche wood-
carving school, which produced dozens of representative
portals for the temples in the regions of Prilep and Demir
Hisar in the 16th century. The royal doors marking the
entrance into the sacred space of the sanctuary also belong
to the same school, and are thus decorated with braided
ornaments and medallions with ornithological motifs in
the form of winged eagles. The majestic, wood-carved cross
placed over the cosmitis (horizontal wooden beam) is from
the 17th century, when, judging by the fragmentary remnants,
the fresco-decoration of the monastic refectory was also
executed. During the 18th century, the church’s iconostasis
was also renewed with a larger number of icons created by
several masters, among whom was the prolific icon painter,
Margarit, the author of representative icons produced during
the eighth decade of the 18th century in several churches in
the Prilep region.
The fresco-inscription preserved from 1849 confirms that
the decorative programme in the dome vaulting the inner
narthex was composed by the fresco-painters Michael of
Samarina, who made his career working on the frescoes and
icons in the most prominent Macedonian monasteries from
the mid 19th century, and his co-worker, the master Zisi from
Kruševo. In the summit of the calotte, they have painted an
impressive depiction of the Holy Trinity.Here seated on their
heavenly thrones made of wavy clouds are the God Father,
the creator of the world, and his son, the savior of humankind,
who holds in his hands the Gospel as well as the Cross of
Golgotha. Between the two, the Holy Spirit is depicted
surrounded by a radial shine of heavenly light as heavenly
beings (the seraphs, cherubs, and thrones) float around
the celestial thrones. Around the image of the Holy Trinity
are illustrated verses from the Resurrection Octoechos,
dedicated to the Virgin and her role in the incarnation of
Christ, attributed to the poet John of Damascus and known
by the name “We rejoice in Thee” (Fig. 15). The Virgin with
the young Christ on her heavenly throne made of floating
clouds, accompanied by the archangels, represents the
iconographic core of hymnographic illustration. On the one
side of her throne stands the angelic entourage, while a choir
of the chosen representatives of human kind are depicted on
the other side. The fresco-painters have followed the textual
narrative of Damascus’ composition.
101
14 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, the folded wood-carved door 15 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec, the Holy Trinity and Damascus` Hymn to the Virgin “We rejoice Thee”

16 Dormition of the Virgin - Treskavec,
part of the fresco-painting in the nave of the church
Thus, the circular illustration of the hymnographic versesdepict
the Virgin with Christ as a metaphor for the sanctified temple,
an image of the Virgin-queen crowning the virtuous virgins,
the Virgin with the incarnated Saviour as an allegory of the
spiritual Heaven, the enthroned Virgin blessing with the young
Christ (“and your womb became wider than the heavens”), and
the landscape spectacle of the Bethlehem’s cave in the Nativity
scene as an illustration for the verse “in thee God has incarnated
and a youth was born”. With the proportional disposition of
the circular flow of this iconographic ensemble, the elegance
of the modeled forms, the vivid outburst of graceful energy,
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Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
as well as the lusciousness of the saturated colour palette, the
painting of the master Michael of Samarina in the dome over
the narthex of the church represents the latest artistic element
of the decorative programme in the Treskavec temple. The
remnants of the fresco-painting from the subsequent times,
preserved in the interior (Fig. 16) and on the façades of the
Virgin’s church, is a reminder that the history of the Treskavec
Monastery continued to be created through the 19thand into
the 20th century, and testifies to the inexhaustible charisma of
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Conference of Byzantine Studies, Belgrade-Kruševac 2000
S. Smolchich-Makuljevich, The Sacred Topography of
Treskavec monastery, ( in Serbian ) Balcanica Number
XXXV, Belgrade 2004
S. Smolchich-Makuljevich, Treskavec Monastery in the 15th
century and the pictorial program in the naos of the Church of
the Holy Dormition of the Mother of God (in Serbian), Journal
of Fine Arts of Matica Srpska Number 37, Novi Sad 2009.
105
 The monastery of the
Transfiguration of
Christ at Zrze
- Philipp Niewöhner -

The monastery sits half way up the mountain above the village
of Zrze on a large white rock that forms a landmark on the
west side of Pelagonia and can be seen from as far as Treskavec
(Fig. 1). The white rock stands out, because the surrounding
mountain consists of dark volcanic stone. The white rock appears
to be travertine that was deposited over a long time by a mineral
spring that today feeds the monastery’s fishpond, but may once
have been hot. The extraordinary location has attracted man
ever since, and recent excavations have established that part
of the monastery’s perimeter wall – to the right of the gate, as
one enters – dates from pre-Christian antiquity. A late antique
basilica with baptistery and burials has been excavated on an
adjacent rock about 100 m further north and can be reached by
a footpath above the drive. The basilica seems to have remained
standing until the middle Byzantine period, when man-made
caves in the soft rock below the monastery were inhabited by
eremites soon after Cyril and Method missionized the Slavs.

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 107

1 Zrze Monastery from the north, as seen from the location of the late antique basilica; 2 Zrze Monastery from the east, placed on a white rock
The monastery overlooks Pelagonia
 Today’s monastery is a historicist21st-century building
that replaces a modernist predecessor from 1933, when all
earlier structures save the church had burned down. The
monastic community suffered a similar fate with several
lapses of tradition and the dispersal of it’s library. Once,
in the mid-20th century, the monastery was re-established
by nuns, two of which can today be seen buried next to
the church. The nunnery did not survive the Yugoslav
period, and a male community was set up ex novo in the
late 20th century.
The church is the only remaining part of the old
monastery. It was built in the middle of the 14th century
by a monk Germanos. A fresco inscription above the
south door of the nave relates the foundation to the
reign of Tsar Stefan Dushan (1346-1355), when Mount
Athos was under Serbian rule, shortly after the monk and
theologian St Gregory Palamas had – after a long and
involved controversy – established the mystical tradition
of Hesychasmas dogma. This may partly explain the
church’s unusual dedication to the Transfiguration of
Jesus on Mount Tabor, because the Tabor Light seen
on that occasion played an important part in Hesychast
spirituality. In the pictorial tradition, Jesus is typically
beheld from below as he appears in shining white
garments on a white rock, for example the fresco above the
west door of the nave (Fig. 3). The monastery occupies
just such a white rock (Fig. 2), which, in addition to the
Hesychast controversy, may have contributed to inspire
the church’s dedication to the Transfiguration.
A second building phase of the church is discernible in
a vertical seam in the middle of the south facade, where
the nave was extended to the west. A fresco inscription
above the west door dates this to the later 14th century
(Fig. 3), about a generation later than the foundation of
the church. In the late 14th and early 15th centuries the
iconostasis received large new icons of Christ and of
the Virgin Pelagonitissa that were executed by John the
Metropolitan and Makarios the Monk, two brothers and
apparently the grandchildren of the church’s original
founder Germanos, indicating a family tradition of
donorship and (old-age) monasticism. Today’s icons
are copies; the originals may be seen at the museum in
Skopje.
In the 16th century the original east part of the nave from
the middle of the 14th century was newly painted (Fig.
11-17), and this work has been attributed to the famous
03 Zrze Monastery, 17th-century porch with three fresco-cycles on the east wall, the Last Judgment (centre), painter Onouphrios, who is known from numerous other
the Life of St Nicholas, and that of the Virgin (left and right, partly cut off) monuments in the patriarchate of Ohrid.

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 111

04 Zrze Monastery, flat east wall of the northern chapel with late 18th-century frescoes:
the window is flanked by the Annunciation and topped by the Panagia or Virgin Platytera
In the 17th century the church was enlarged by the addition
of two chapels to the north and to the south and a porch
to the west. The southern chapel has since collapsed and
made space for a 19th-century belfry at the south-east
corner of the church. The porch still stands across the
width of the nave and both chapels, preserving a fresco
decoration from the 17th-century even on the west wall
of the missing southern chapel (Fig. 3). The northern
chapel is dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul, who are
depicted in the porch, to the left of the chapel door. The
interior of the northern chapel was redecorated in the late
18th century in folk art style, including an iconostasis and
frescoes in the sanctuary. The window in the flat east wall is
flanked by the Annunciation and topped by the Panagia or
Virgin Platytera (Fig. 4), thus repeating the iconography
of the main apse
The church is normally entered via the 17th-century porch
that contains four fresco cycles(Fig. 3), (a) the Last
Judgment in the centre, on the west wall of and framing the
door to the nave, (b) the Life of St Nicholas on the west
112
wall of and framing the door to the northern chapel, (c) the
Life of the Virgin on the west wall of and framing the door
to what used to be the southern chapel, and (d) the rare
Parable of the Judgment or the Sheep and the Goats on the
badly preserved north wall. Inscriptions above the various
doors relate that the cycles were painted consecutively in
1624/25 (a), 1634/35 (b) and thereafter (c), as donors
came forward and funds were made available.
The Last Judgment (a) encloses a central arched niche
above the door that dates from the 14th century and contains
the Transfiguration surrounded by the Virgin, additional
prophets, and John the Baptist (on the bottom right) (Fig.
3). The Last Judgment itself is organized in five registers that
become lower towards the top, thus making the cycle and,
in consequence, the wall and the porch appear taller. The
central axis is occupied by a Deesis on top, a Hetoimasia
and flanking angels below, and the Archangel Michael above
the door. On right and left the door if flanked by another, 05 Zrze Monastery, Heavenly Jerusalem, part of the Last Judgement in the centre of the east wall of the porch,
17th century (cf. Fig. 3)
monumental Deesis and by the Heavenly Jerusalem that
is guarded by a cherub and surrounded by city walls from
The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze
 chapel, starting on the top left with her birth, her blessing
by three priests, the rejection of the sacrificial gifts of
Joachim and Anna, the annunciation of Mary’s birth to
Anna, and Mary’s presentation in the temple (Fig. 3).
Above the door these scenes enclose a niche with a bust of
Christ. Flanking the door stand four life-size martyrs, two
women to the left and two men to the right, St Petka, St
Nedela, and the paired physicians Sts Cosmas and Damian.
Upon entering the nave, visitors find themselves
surrounded by the oldest extant frescos that decorate the
western extension from the later 14th century. One painter
signed himself as Dragoslav, and this name re-appears
alongside that of Dobroslav in one of the caves below
the monastery, suggesting that the workshop was of local
Slavonic extraction. The frescoes are arranged in three
and more registers, with life-size early Byzantine monks in
an elevated bottom position, about 1 m above the viewer,
followed by smaller busts of ancient martyrs in medallions,
and, thirdly, by yet smaller scenes of the Life of Christ and
its Old Testament precursors (Fig. 6). The consecutive
reduction in scale enhances the steep proportions of the
narrow and tall room and appears to distance the martyrs
and biblical figures from the viewer, reflecting their greater
age and saintliness. The more approachable monks in the
lowest register could serve as role models for the monastic
community.
On the west wall, the monks are arranged in two scenes,
one on each side of the door (Fig. 6): On the south side
St Pachomius is instructed by an angel as to the Schema
monk habit of Orthodox monasticism; on the north
side St Zosimus brings communion to the emaciated St
Mary of Egypt. The north and south walls of the western
extension are each occupied by three pairs of monks, the
westernmost pairs representing solitary hermits with long
beards and improvised dress, the central pairs members of
coenobitic communities in monastic habit (Fig. 7), and
the easternmost pairs learned church fathers and monk
bishops (Fig. 8).

06 Zrze Monastery, life-size monks, busts of martyrs, the
Communion of the Apostles, and the Three Angels at
Mamre on the west wall of the nave, later 14th century
07 Zrze Monastery, two hermits and two coenobitic monks
(bottom right and left), busts of martyrs, and, on top from
left to right, Jacob meeting Joseph, the Unsleeping Eye,
and Christ before Pilate on the south wall in the western
extension of the nave, later 14th century

which the four paradisiacal rivers are gushing forth (Fig. 5).
Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham with the righteous dead awaiting
judgment in their bosoms sit inside the walls. Behind and
above them the Penitent Thief has just entered Paradise
carrying his cross. Outside and on the right, St Peter can be
seen leading a group of saints into Heaven. Below them the
five Wise Virgins hold lighted torches or candles, just as any
modern churchgoer might do.
The next register contains groups of righteous bishops,
martyrs, and monks on the left and prophets as well as royal
and other female saints on the right (Fig. 3). In addition,
the right side shows a short section of the red-hot river of
fire flanked by Lazarus and the rich man, the latter being the
only allusion to damnation in this otherwise all-forgiving
judgment. Further above follow the twelve apostles as
well as miniature figures of the resurrected Adam and Eve
above the arch of the central niche. The Life of St Nicholas
(b) on the west wall of the northern chapel ends with his
Dormition to the right of the chapel door (Fig. 3). On the
left side of the door St Peter and Paul can be seen presenting
a model of the church. The arched niche above the door
contains an image of the Virgin with child. It is enclosed by
up to three registers with eleven more scenes from the Life
of St Nicholas, starting with his nativity above the niche
and continuing from top to bottom and from left to right
with his schooling, his ordination, his healing a sick, his
ordaining a priest and a deacon, his saving three prisoners,
his appearance in Eulalia’s dream, his breaking idols, his
saving a ship in the storm, his saving three men from the
sword, and three officers appealing to him. The north wall
of the porch (d) presents individual saints in the lower
register, i. e. St George and St Demetrius to the west, and
the Parable of the Judgment or the Sheep and the Goats
above, for example ‘I was naked and you clothed me’, ‘I was
thirsty and you gave me drink’, and ‘I was hungry and you
gave me food’.
Five scenes from the Life of the Virgin (c) occupy two 08 Zrze Monastery, two hermits, two coenobitic monks, and two monk bishops (bottom left to right) as well as busts
registers above the door to what used to be the southern of martyrs on the north wall in the western extension of the nave, later 14th century

114 The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 115
 The latter are here represented in monastic habit rather
than in episcopal garments, which appears to relate their
spiritual authority to monasticism rather than to episcopal
office and thus to appeal to the monastic community.
As opposed to the axial symmetry of the monks in the
lower register, the upper scenes from the Life of Christ
follow a clock-wise order, starting on the eastern part of
the south wall (Fig. 7) and concluding on the eastern
part of the north wall. The choice of scenes is unusual and
may have come about, because this part of the nave was
a later addition to the original church that would already
have contained the more common scenes. Thus, on the
10 Zrze Monastery, the Three Angels at Mamre on the west wall of the nave, later 14th century (cf. Fig. 6)
09 Zrze Monastery, the Unsleeping Eye on the south wall in the western extension of the nave,
later 14th century ( cf. Fig. 7)
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
south wall Christ’s infancy that was presumably illustrated
in the original east part of the nave is further elaborated
with the scene of the unsleeping, i. e. always open and
vigilant eye of young Jesus, as Mary guards his rest (Fig.
9). This scene takes place in Egypt and is paired with Jacob
meeting Joseph in Egypt (Fig. 7), as the Life of Joseph
was considered an Old Testament antecedent of the Life
of Christ. Such typological links between the testaments
would seem to expand on the church’s dedication to the
Transfiguration, in which Jesus appears alongside prophets
from the Old Testament.
117
The next south-wall scene to the right shows Christ before
Pilate (Fig. 7), thus moving from his infancy to his Passion.
Beyond that, the upper part of the wall and the barrel vault
have been lost. The north wall is even more damaged, with
only the bottom parts of three scenes remaining, Christ
before Annas and Caiaphas, the Mocking of Christ, and
the Setting Up of the Cross at Golgotha.
The west wall is completely preserved and presents two wide
scenes one above the other, the Communion of the Apostles
and the three angels that visited Abraham at Mamre (Fig. 6).
As the angels appear to be blessing the food that they were
served (Fig. 10), Abrahams hospitality can be understood
as an Old Testament typology of the communion, and
both scenes would seem to mirror the liturgy that takes
place at the opposite, east end of the nave. In addition,
the three angels were recognized as personifications of
the Trinity and their appearance at Mamre as a precursor
of the Transfiguration, when the Trinity became manifest
in the shape of the transfigured Jesus, the voice of God
Father, and the light of the Holy Spirit (the Tabor Light).
Overall, the western addition to the nave stands out for a
sophisticated iconography with numerous specific allusions
to monasticism and to the dedication of the church, which
turned to advantage the unusual situation of having to
devise an addition to the pre-existing and presumably fully
illustrated original church to the east.
In the 16th century, when the east part of the nave and the
apse were repainted, the situation was different, as the
painter would have been required to reproduce basically the
same standard repertoire that will already have decorated
the original mid-14thcentury church. The south and north
walls are again divided into a lower register of life-size
figures, a second row of smaller busts in medallions, and
a third register with yet smaller, narrative scenes from the
Life of Christ, the Nativity, the Meeting in the Temple, and
the Baptism on the south wall as well as the Lamentation,
the Descent into Hades, and the Noli Me Tangere on the
north wall. In addition, remains of a fourth register show
the feet of rows of life-size prophets that extended into and
faced each other across the barrel vault. This composition
is also attested in other Byzantine barrel vaults of the
region, for example St Nicholas at Varoş, but was originally
conceived for domes, where the prophets surrounded and
pointed towards a central image of the Pantocrator. At
Zrze, the Pantocrator is instead depicted above the apse.
118
The lowest register has a Deesis on the north wall and
Constantine and Helena on the south wall facing each other
next to the iconostasis. Further west follow five military
saints, a group of three on the north wall and the closely
related Sts Theodore Tyron and Stratelates holding hands
on the south wall(Fig. 11). Their lively stances, complicated
garments with light colours and small-scale patterns, and
their various attributes are rendered with much attention to
detail, all of which sets the 16th-century figures apart from
the 14th-century monks in the west part of the nave that are
mostly standing still, wear no patterns, have few attributes,
and distinguish themselves mainly through darker colours
and solemnity (Fig. 6-8). Another difference is more
obvious in the second row of saintly busts in medallions:
These smaller images of less well-known saints seem to have
been less tightly regulated by the iconographic tradition,
thus affording the painter more scope for the application of
period style, and some of the 16th-century busts are blatantly
Renaissance in style (Fig. 12).
Similarly, some of the small icons of the Deesis and
the Apostles on top of the iconostasis, that was partly
repainted on the same occasion, alsoappear to be informed
by the Renaissance. This is most obvious in the cases of
Simeon, Mark, and Andrew, where the traditional golden
background has been replaced by red and green and the
faces were newly rendered in a fine, painterly manner
(Fig. 13). Onouphrios, to whomthe 16th-century frescoes
have been attributed, would have been exposed to the
Renaissance during time spent at Venice.
11 Zrze Monastery, Sts Theodore Tyron and Stratelates holding hands on the south wall
in the eastern part of the nave, 16th century
The sanctuary is dominated by an over-life size bust of
the Panagia or Virgin Platyterawith a medallion of Christ
Emmanuel on her breast in the conch of the apse(Fig. 14).
Below, an altar with the Eucharistic vessels and the cross
with the instruments of torture are guarded by angels. Two
bishops approach from right and left, St John Chrysostom
and St Basil the Great. Two more bishops – St Gregory of
Nyssa and St John the Merciful – flank the diaconicon niche
with St Jacob (or James), brother of Jesus, to the south of the
apse. The prothesis niche to the north of the apse contains
an image of the entombed body of Christ and is flanked
by St Laurent and St Stephen the Protomartyr. Yet more
bishops follow on the north and south walls, including the
vision of St Peterof Alexandria, to whom the Christchild
appears with his garment torn by a heretic(Fig. 15). The 12 Zrze Monastery, busts of Sts Athanasius the Persian, Alexis, and the Righteous Job on the north wall
latter can be seen at the bottom right of the picture, as he is in the eastern part of the nave, 16th century
being swallowed by the mouth of hell.
The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze
13 Zrze Monastery, icon of the Apostle Andrew on the iconostatsis, originally from the 14th century,
but retouched in the 16th century

14 Zrze Monastery, apse with the Panagia or Virgin Platytera above and an Eucharistic altar, the instruments of
torture, and flanking bishops below, 16th century
 16 Zrze Monastery, Trinity above the apse, 16th century
On the east wall above the apse follows a rare depiction of
the Trinity in the shape of three angelic heads with wings
(Fig. 16) that mirror the three angels at Mamre on the
opposite, west wall of the nave. Whilst the three angels
announced Sarah’s pregnancy to Abraham, the conch
of the apse is flanked by the Annunciation to Mary, with
her sitting on the right and the angel standing on the left.
Above them, the Pantocrator is surrounded by the four
Evangelists and topped by the Mandylion.
Overall, the monastery at Zrze stands out for an extraordinary
location that attracted man ever since and appears to
Selected Bibliography
15 Zrze Monastery, St Gregory the Theologian (left) and the Vision of St Peter of Alexandria
on the north wall of the sanctuary, 16th century
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
have inspired the dedication to the Transfiguration. The
Byzantine frescoes are remarkable for a sophisticated
theological commentary on the Transfiguration and for a
unique typology of Eastern monasticism. The later frescoes
and dedicatory inscriptions illustrate and document the
long and complex development of the monastery church
and form an exemplary case study in regional art history.
A fortunate state of preservation and an unspoiled natural
setting with a stunning view across the Pelagonian plane
convey an authentic experience of the monastic calling and
its intimate relationship with natural beauty.
G. Babić, Le maphorion de la Vierge et le Psaume 44(45)
sur les images du XIVe siècle, in: Euphrosynon: aphierōma
ston Manolē Chatzēdakē (Athens 1991-92) vol. 1,
pp. 57-64.
B. Todić, The Fresco Painting of the Narthex of Zrze and
the Liturgy of Holy Week, ( in Serbian), Zograf 35, 2011,
211-222.
B. Risteski, The Earliest Christian Heritage in the
Regions of Mariovo and Northern Pelagonia, (in
Macedonian) , Niş and Byzantium 9, 2010, 203-226.
D. Nikolovski, - Monastery of Zrze -, Cultural Heritage
Protectionj Office (Skopje 2015).
123
 The church of the
Holy Virgin at
Slivnica Monastery
- Risto Paligora -

Several monastic complexes and individual monastic units from

the Middle and post-Byzantine eras are located on the east shore
of Lake Prespa. Among these, the church dedicated to the birth
of St. Mary, which stands high above the village of Slivnica, has
an important place. The approach to the monastery from the
shore is a meandering odyssey. The magnificent view of the lake,
the vegetation growing into a dense forest, the tree crowns often
blocking the sunlight and obscuring the sky, make your journey
to the monastic complex an unforgettable experience.

1 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery, South-west view

Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 125

 1 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery, South-west view
126 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa 127

02 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the donor inscription written above the west entrance
The monastic complex includes a single-nave church (Figure
1) at a height of 1300 meters above sea-level situated near a
creek that cuts across the hillside. The church stands amid an
area of grassland deep inside the forest. The monastic area can
be approached from three entrance gates named after the three
villages—of Kurbinovo, Malovišta, and Slivnica—in whose
respective directions the gates lead. The church has a simple
rectangular plan with a five-sided apse on the outer side. The
church walls consist of irregular pieces of stone bound togeth-
er with mortar and an undecorated façade. The main west en-
trance and the additional southeast entrance lead into the altar.
The interior is occupied by a longitudinal semi-circular vault of
128
three bays linked by arches. The iconostasis lies between the
eastern pilasters, and separates the altar area from the naos. The
floor is laid with original hexagonal clay tiles.
The long dedicatory inscriptions written in Church Slavon-
ic are of considerable historical and linguistic importance as
they mention place names and provide information about the
historical context, the donors, and the date of construction of
the church. The longest inscription written on the wall of the
naos above the western entrance has fifteen lines (Figure 2).
This primary source tells us that Mihail Petkov of Bitola com-
missioned the construction and the frescoing of the oldest part
of the church in 1606-07, when the diocese was governed by
The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery
Metropolitan Matthew of Prespa during Nikanor’s tenure as
hegumen of the monastery. Hieromonk Nikanor, a spiritual
leader respected throughout the region, had become the hegu-
men of the Slivnica monastery prior to the construction of
the church. He must have been considered highly charismatic
since a number of followers are known to have made financial
contributions towards the construction of this sacred building.
The church was completed in 1611-12, when the narthex was
added to the main structure. Soon after the completion of the
construction, the fresco decorations were painted on the west
wall in 1613-14 and then in 1645. The closed porch and the
bell-tower were built during the first decades of the twentieth
century whereas the quarters and other additional spaces were
built more recently, all testifying to the fact that there was con-
03 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the Mother of God as the Theotokos
with the embodied Christ in the apsidal conch
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
tinuous interest in this monastery. Although the monastery
was no longer active by the late nineteenth century, the main-
tenance of the building has continued and believers are often
seen drinking holy water from the spring.
The dedicatory inscription written in the naos records the
name of an artisan Navar, who either constructed the
building or was one of the two painters to have frescoed
the oldest part of the church. The fresco ensemble at the
Slivnica monastery is preserved almost in its entirety. Al-
though relatively small in size, the ensemble contains most
of the thematic elements common in the sixteenth and the
first half of the seventeenth centuries, along with some in-
triguing iconographic particularities.
129
 The altar, the most sacred space in a church, contains sever-
al frescoes, of which the most remarkable are those located
in the apse conch representing the Liturgical Service to the
Lamb of God for eternal memory to the sacrifice of Christ.
The upper zone contains a portrait of the Mother of God
with her infant, showing the Mother of God as the Theot-
okos with the embodied Christ (Figure 3) flanked by the
Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The fresco depicting the
Officiating Church Fathers includes an important number
of the Holy Hierarchs wearing the polystavria. Here, St.
John the Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Athanasius of
Alexandria and St. Gregory the Theologian lead the wor-
ship service while other hierarchs are depicted in a frontal
pose, in medallions located in the middle zone of the apse
conch, or as full-length figures turned to one side. Along
with many of the hierarchs, theologians, writers, and mir-
acle-workers, portraits of St. Cyril the Philosopher, the
Christian missionary among the Slavs, and Achillius of La-
rissa, the patron saint of the specially-built church on an is-
land in Lake Prespa by Tsar Samuel testify to the local cult
of these saints in the region.
The niches of the diaconicon feature the standard repre-
sentation of the archdeacons St. Stephen and St. Roman.
However, it is peculiar that St. Laurentius, St. Elefterios and
St. Acepsimas of Hnaita are portrayed wearing the deacon’s
clothing in the southern part of the church. The illustration
of the scene, known as the Vision of Saint Peter of Alex-
andria, is to be found in its usual position—the northern
wall of the altar area. The composition depicts the moment
when the infant Christ appears shining with his right hand
raised to give a blessing to St. Peter of Alexandria as he is
officiating in his cell.
The portrait of Kupen, who died very young (Figure 4), is
one of the most well-known and authentic frescoes paint-
ed in Slivnica. He was the son of Mihail Petkov and was
already dead at the time this portrait was made. The illus-
tration eternalizes the main donor for the reconstruction
of the church and also addresses the patronage of the Holy
Mother of God as the most fitting for eternal memorial-
ization. This fresco is also useful for studying the clothing
worn by wealthy people in the given period. The young
man is dressed in a grayish long tunic with sleeves and
many buttons. A red kaftan top ornamented with bands
covers his upper body. The man is shown holding a cloth
in his hand, an element making reference to the funerary
context of the illustration. It is also peculiar that portraits
of the Holy Hymnographers St. Cosmas of Maiuma and St.
John Damascene were painted across the upper zone of the
04 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the funerary portrait of young Kupen,
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
the son of Mihail Petkov, one of the main donors
altar area. The representations of these saints in rich cloth-
ing are placed above the vault, next to the portraits of the
prophets David and Solomon.
The upper zones of the south and north walls include sever-
al scenes from various Christological cycles. The Annunci-
ation is represented in the southern part as the first scene in
the Great Feast Cycle. Two compositions, the Myrrh-bear-
ers at Christ’s tomb and the Harrowing of Hell, are placed
directly opposite the Annunciation, emphasizing the im-
portance of the doctrine of the Resurrection. Also includ-
ed in this section are images of the appearances of Christ
after Resurrection, such as the image of Christ revealing
himself to the myrrh-bearers, and a representation of the
Supper at Emmaus depicting the moment at which the
resurrected Saviour gives bread to Luke and Cleopa. The
final element of this visual narrative sequence inthe altar
area includes the scene depicting Jesus and the Samaritan
Woman, which is spread across the entire southern vault
and illustrates one of the most important teachings of Je-
sus while he was on earth. The illustrations at the centre of
the highest part of the arch include four medallions painted
from east to west with the figures of Christ, an Angel of the
Great Council (on the east side, above the altar table), and
the Christ Emmanuel flanked by angels and cherubim.
The most remarkable piece painted on the vault above
the central part of the naos is the representation of Christ
Pantocrator, showing the bust of the Christ. The circular
area that shows the Christ Pantocrator blessing continues
with medallions in the shape ofa four-leaf clover in which
the upper bodies of twelve angels, the Mother of God, and
John the Baptist have been painted. The angels are shown
wearing ceremonial vestments, and holding in their hands
a scepter and a sphere with Christ’s monogram on it. The
portraits of the evangelists shown holding closed codices in
their hands are painted in the corners of the composition.
At the end of the western section, above the church en-
trance and close to the monumental illustration of the Dor-
mition of the Mother of God, there is a remarkable portrait
of the Mother of God Orans inside a medallion held up by
angels ( Fig. 5). This illustration symbolically closes the
dogmatic cycle of the highest zones of this intricate decora-
tion. The figures of the prophets arranged in two horizontal
rows separate the composition from the lower illustrations.
The upper zones of the side walls contain compositions
from the extensive Christological cycle: the cycle of the
Great Feasts, the Passion Week, the Miracles of Christ, and
his post-resurrection appearances.
131

15 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the enthroned Mother of God and Christ flanked by the
archangels; Patron image in the façade niche above the entrance
In accordance with the altar decorations, a few scenes from
the Cycle of the Great Feasts painted on the south wall
of the naos consist of iconographic elements commonly
used in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries.
The visualization of the events begins with scenes from the
Nativity pictured in a pastoral scene and then continues in
chronological order with the Presentation of Jesus at the
Temple, the Baptism of Christ, the Raising of Lazarus, and
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The cycle continues
in the same zone of the northern part with the usual artis-
tic interpretations of the Transfiguration and Crucifixion
of Jesus. The above-mentioned illustration of the Dormi-
tion of the Mother of God painted above the west entrance
stands out prominently from the rest of the decoration as
it follows the Palaeologan iconographic models found on
Mount Athos.
Scenes related to Christ’s Passion form an important part of
the iconographic program in the naos. The painted cycle in the
northern part has nine scenes from the life of Christ; it begins
with an illustration of the Washing of the Feet, and ends with
the scene of the Lamentation. Some compositions, such as
06 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; Christ revealing himself to the Apostles at the sea of Tiberias
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
the repentance of Judas, the Denial of St. Peter, and the Trial
of Jesus, form an unbroken chain of consecutive events. The il-
lustrations of the twelve-year-old Jesus teaching in the temple
surrounded by Jews, and his healing of the man born blind, are
painted within the cycle known as the Christ Public Ministry.
The illustration of one of the post-resurrection appearances,
known as the Christ’s meeting with his disciples at the sea of
Tiberias, is painted on south of the iconostasis ( Figure 6).
The standing saints painted in the first zone, represented as
either full or half-figures, symbolize the pillars of faith or the
fundamentals of Christian history. These illustrations are
painted onthe niches, the supporting arches, and the pilas-
ters of the south, west, and east walls. The figures have been
grouped together in units based on the role they had played
in the Church of Christ. The most respected ecumenical
monks, hermits, warrior-martyrs, and holy healers are to be
found in this part of the church. The holy physicians, St. Pan-
teleimon, St. Cosmas, and St.Damian, are painted standing
next to each other on south of the iconostasis, demonstrat-
ing the significance of unmediated prayer to the most nota-
ble healers and protectors of human health.
133
07 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; St. Nicetas the Goth, St. Theodore Tyron,
and St. Theodore Stratelates, naos, first zone, north wall
On the most visible parts of the south wall, portraits of the
most distinguished Eremitic and Cenobitic monks are paint-
ed. The figures are shown standing in a frontal position and
holding unrolled scrolls bearing homilies. The main group of
saints includes St. Sabbas the Sanctified, St. Euthymius the
Great, and St. Ephrem the Syrian, flanked by St. Anthony the
Great, and St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch (painted on the
sides of the pilasters).The scene of St. Sisoes the Great at the
tomb of Alexander the Great is painted in the narrow eastern
window-frame. Here, the Egyptian desert father is depicted
with raised hands lamenting over the open grave with the
dead bones of the greatest ancient military leader. The theme
of the human ephemerality and the celebration of eternal life
was usual in monastic circles and spread widely in Balkan
religious art through the fifteenth to the eighteenth century.
Behind the portrait of apostle Paul, in the southwest part
above the plinth, several ascetics are depicted: St. Eu-
134
phrosyne of Alexandria, St. Macarius of Egypt, St. Macari-
us the Roman, St. Barbara, and St. Alexis of Rome. Oppo-
site of the image of the apostle Paul in the central pilaster
of the northern wall stands a depiction of St. Peter, along
with whom the apostle Paul is shown symbolically carry-
ing the Church. The two niches that surround the portrait
of St. Peter contain representations of the holy warriors.
In the west aisle are portraits of St. Mercurius, St. Nicetas
the Goth, St. Theodore Tyron and St. Theodore Stratelates
(Figure 7), and St. Artemius wearing decorative cloaks
over long tunics.
The pilaster to the north of the iconostasis contains a rare
illustration of St. Sebastian of Milan. Next to him, in the
middle niche, are the portraits of several holy warriors:
St. Nicholas, St. George, St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki,
St. Nestor, St. Procopius and St. Martyr Lupus of Novae.
These martyrs are shown carrying crosses in their hands;
The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery
08 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the altar rail with the iconostasis
cross and the two-winged wood-carved doors
09 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; fresco on the vault of the narthex; 11 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery, Ss. Cyril and Methodius, and their disciples St.Clement, St.Naum,
the composition “We rejoice Thee” St.Gorazd, St.Sava and St.Angelarius

010 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; frescoes on the west wall of the narthex 12 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the prepared throne, a detail from the Last Judgment, west façade

13 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the choir of the righteous, a detail from the Last Judgment,
west façade
the martyrdom of St. George and St. Demetrius is further
emphasized with them being crowned with the wreath of
immortality.
In the southern part, next to the entrance on the western
wall, the Archangel Michael is represented standing in a
belligerent posture with a shield and sword, whereas in
the northern part, Christ’s cross from Golgotha is carried
by Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Elena, the first
Christian rulers. Some of the icons integrated into the ico-
nostasis (Figure 8) were painted around the same time as the
fresco-decoration of the church. The image of the enthroned
Mother of God holding the Christ features a stucco ornamen-
tation embellishing the haloes with variants of thick vegetal
ornaments. Above this is the epistyle-frieze with the illustra-
138
tion of the Deisis and the busts of the twelve apostles. The re-
markable wood-carved cross is placed on the top along with an
illustration of the Crucifixion and side panels. Central to the
iconostasis are the two hinged royal doors, a unique specimen
of late Byzantine art remarkable for its wood-carving and orga-
nization of painted panels decorated with floral motifs.
A slightly different artistic sensibility is expressed in the frescoes
inthe narthex, which, according to an inscription, was built five
years after the construction of the main part of the church. A
series of frescoes illustrating Christian poems for the Mother of
God are painted in the upper zones of the narthex. This iconog-
raphy is crowned with an illustration of the complex composi-
tion known as “We rejoice Thee” (Figure 9), consisting of nine
scenes painted in the highest zone. The middle zone includes
The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery
compositions illustrating the Akathist Hymn. The representa-
tions of Jacob’s Ladder, Moses and the Burning Bush, and the
Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace are also in line with the iconog-
raphy associated withthe prefiguration of the Mother of God
(Figure 10).
The frescoes painted on the lowest zone of the narthex testify
to the monastic character of the space. The frescoes occupying
this region include portraits of ascetic saints, such as St. Bar-
laam and St. Josaphat, St. Gerasimos, St. Paul of Thebes, St.
Mardarius, St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Pachomius, St.Zo-
simus, and St. Mary of Egypt. The north wall of the narthex
contains full-length portraits of the Seven Saints—St. Cyril, St.
Methodius and their most famous students, holy St. Clement,
St. Naum, St. Gorazd, St. Sava and St. Angelarius—the earliest
known illustration of the theme (Figure 11). The west exterior
wall of the narthex, around the niche containing a depiction of
the enthroned Mother of God and Christ flanked by the arch-
angels, has an illustration of the complex composition of the
Last Judgment arranged in a few horizontal rows (Figures 12
& 13).
14 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the Deisis with the portraits of apostles Peter and Paul, west façade
Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
The most recent fresco-decoration in the church, dated
1645, contains scenes of the Deisis and portraits of apostles
Peter and Paul (Figure 14) and is on the exterior southwest
wall of the narthex. The icon of the Mother of God of the
Life-giving Spring (Figure 15) provides further testimony
to the continuity of monastic life until modern times. Un-
doubtedly, the icon is linked to the devotees’ belief that the
spring water flowing nearby can cure illness. It was execut-
ed by Trpu of Korça, a painter who has left behind several
pieces at the end of the 18th, and the beginning of the 19th
centuries.
All the fresco paintings in the Slivnica monastery exempli-
fy the artistic tendencies prevalent from the last decades
of the 16th to the mid-17th century. The donors commis-
sioned at least two talented artists to paint the naos. The
common themes and cycles had to fit into a small space.
This art is characterized by figures with correct proportions
and calm movements, by well-organized compositions
dominated by contour lines, and by a warm and earthy col-
or palette of ochre, red and green.
139
 There was inventiveness in the design of the iconographic
units of the frescoes in the narthex, given that the painting
was executed on a small surface. The donor inscriptions,
the names of the saints, and the titles of the compositions
are written correctly in Slavonic, the language of the do-
nors, suggesting that the artists who wrote the inscriptions
knew the language very well. The anonymous artists who
Selected Bibliography
15 Church of the Holy Virgin, Slivnica monastery; the Icon of the Mother of God of the Life-giving Spring
from the year 1800 Seven Churches in the Regions of Pelagonia, Mariovo and Prespa
decorated the walls of the church at the Slivnica monas-
tery have been identified as the creators of other frescoes in
present-day Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. These works
draw from the artistic achievements of the Archbishopric
of Ohrid, the Kastoria school of Byzantine art, and also
from the artists working in the then-prosperous Aroma-
nian settlements of Gramosta and Linotopi.
Cvetan Grozdanov, ‘The oldest representation of the Seven
Saints’, Cultural Life 7-8, (in Macedonian)Skopje, 1979
Petar Miljković-Pepek 1979-80, ‘Historical and
iconographic issues of the underexplored church St. Mother
of God at Slivnica monastery in the region of Prespa Lake’
(in Macedonian), Annual of the Faculty of Philosophy,
Vol. 5-6, Skopje, 1979-80
Dinitar Kjornakov, - Slivnica monaster -,
Macedonian Orthodox Church, Skopje, 2007
Jadranka. Nikolić, ‘Themes related to the Mother of
God in the narthex of the Church of the Holy Mother of God at
Slivnica monastery’, (in Serbian), Zograf N. 16, Belgrade,
1985
Marija Mašnić, ‘The iconostasis at the Slivnica monastery’
(in Macedonian), Macedonian heritage N. 5, Skopje,
1997
Viktorija Popovska-Korobar, ‘Akathist to the Mother
of God, fresco cycle in the Slivnica monastery’, (in
Macedonian), Patrimonium MK Volume V, Skopje 2012
Viktorija Popovska-Korobar, ‘Mural paintings
in the church at the Slivnica monastery’ (in
Macedonian), Patrimonium MK Volume VIII, 2015
141
Seven Churches
in the Regions of Pelagonia,
Mariovo and Prespa
The church of St. George in Kurbinovo
The church of St. Nikolas in the Village of Manastir
St. Archangel Michael Church in Varoš, Prilep
The church of St. Nicolas in Prilep
The Church of the Dormition in the Monastery of Treskavec
The monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ at Zrze
The church of the Holy Virgin at Slivnica Monastery

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