Frescoes, icons and woodcarving: the back story

About Frescoes, icons and woodcarving: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Skopje Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

For a small country, North Macedonia has an extraordinary wealth of medieval art. From the 11th to the 14th century, painters here created frescoes that changed the course of Byzantine art, and in the 19th century master carvers made some of the finest iconostases anywhere.

Nerezi

The frescoes of St Panteleimon at Gorno Nerezi, painted in 1164 on the slopes of Vodno, are famous for their emotion. In the Lamentation, the Virgin presses her face to her dead son’s, a scene that art historians see as a forerunner of the Renaissance.

Ohrid

Ohrid was a great centre of Orthodox learning and art. St Sophia holds 11th-century frescoes, the Church of the Holy Mother of God Perivlepta has paintings from 1295 by the masters Michael and Eutychios, and the icon gallery beside it holds icons of the highest quality.

At Nerezi, the painters of 1164 put human grief at the heart of art.

The carvers of Debar

In the 19th century, woodcarvers from the Debar region created spectacular iconostases, the screens that separate the altar from the nave, crowded with figures, birds, vines and scenes. The finest are in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Skopje and the Bigorski Monastery near Mavrovo.

Seeing it

Churches and monasteries are active places of worship. Dress modestly, keep quiet during services and ask before taking photographs; a small fee is often charged.

Our advice: see Nerezi in Skopje and the Holy Saviour’s iconostasis in the bazaar, then make the journey to Ohrid for St Sophia and the icon gallery at Perivlepta. On the way, stop at Bigorski Monastery: the carving is extraordinary.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Frescoes, icons and woodcarving: the back story before you go.