Ryo arrived in Macedonia…

         On June 28, we picked Ryo Higuchi, our new Japanese friend who was sent to our care and responsibility by my younger “brother” from Kanazawa, Hiro (otherwise a university professor, named Hirofumi Sugawara) from the Hotel Bellevue in Skopje, where he arrived the previous night from Vienna. On the way to Ohrid we went to Gorno Nerezi to see St. Panteleimon for knows which time and to promote it solemnly to Ryo, who, knowing the Japanese, is likely to come here many times.

In the inscription above the door leading to the nave of the Nerezi church it is said that it was erected and painted in 1164. Itsr founder was the Prince Alexius Comnin, the son of the feudal lords Constantine Angelos and Theodora, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexius of the dynasty of the Comnenes, who entrusted the painter's task to a prominent painter who marked the epoch and with his supreme work remained permanently spotted in the history of painting as "the master of Nerezi".

Leaving Skopje, we went to Matka to see the church of St. Andrew and take some pictures from the church and the beautiful nature in the Treska River canyon. The church itself was erected in 1388/89 in the picturesque canyon of the river as an endowment of Andreas, the brother of King Marko, in the form of a three-naved domed church with a porch added in the 16th century. In the painting of the artist, the Metropolitan John, the classical ideals, strict proportions, volume and all other bearing stylistic components of court art from the beginning of the 14th century are revived.

On the way to Tetovo and Gostivar, we called Sime in Vrutok to throw some trouts on the grill and to cool the beer until we reach there.

After about two hours, with fully settled food and beer needs, satisfied and laid in the seats, we continued for Ohrid, where in the afternoon and the next day, Rio reviewed and photographed Ohrid churches and other interesting places, some with me and some accompanied by Emil.

St. Panteleimon in Nerezi

In the canyon of Treska River at Matka

St. Andreas in the canyon of Treska River at Matka

The trout at Sime's in Vrutok

New exhibition in the lower space of the Icon Gallery-Ohrid

        At the end of June 2017, in addition to the permanent exhibition of icons from the world-renown Ohrid collection that is exhibited in the upper space, in the lower space of the Icon Gallery-Ohrid, another part of the rich heritage from the collections of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid was put on display.

It is about twenty-two fresco-copies with the portraits and figures of the Slavic Enlighteners SS Clement and Naum of Ohrid, but also SS Cyril and Methodius and other saints from the churches in Macedonia and neighboring countries, such as Serbia and Kosovo, but also one from Rome, Italy. The copies were made mostly in 1966 and 1980, on the occasion of the celebration of the 1050th anniversary of the death of St. Clement of Ohrid (1966) and the opening of the Museum of the Slavic Literature in Ohrid (1980) by the most famous copysts of that time, Dragomir Jashovic, Zdenka Zhivkovic, Nikola Conev and others. Last year (2016), most of these frescoes were exhibited at the exhibition "St. Clement of Ohrid and his representations in fine arts" at the Papal University of Urbaniana in the Vatican, as well as at two other exhibitions in Skopje and Ohrid.

In addition to the frescoes, in the framework of this exhibition, in five glass showcases there are several church embroideries and many other various liturgical objects, among which there are reliquaries, icon lamps, parts of revetments of icons, as well as one tetraevangelion with beautifully made silver cover, with the aim to enrich the content and diversity of the objects presented to the visitors of the Icon Gallery-Ohrid. All items are pre-conserved and prepared for presentation.

Look at the exhibition

Look at the exhibition-1

Two embroidered crosses, parts of sakkos or omophorion and a reliquary from the 19th century

Two embroidered crosses, parts of sakkos or omophorion and a reliquary from the 11th century

Embroidered podea with a representation of the Presentation of the Virgin in a temple and two icon lamps

View of the showcases

Tetraevangelion with silver covers from 1769 and a silver icon lamp

Parts (aureoles and hands) of revetments of icons from 18th and 19th centuries