This
morning we started the tour through Macedonia, Greece and Albania in a try to
fulfill the plan that Ryo had already sent us before. The churches of St. George
in Kurbinovo, St. Nicholas in Manastir-Mariovo, The Holy Virgin in Drenovo, the
monasteries in Vodocha and Velyusa as well as the remains of The Holy 15 Martyrs
of Tiberyopolis in Strumica were on his list for Macedonia (Nerezi and Matka
were gratis from us, and the lunch at Sime’s in Vrutok was gratis from Ryo for
our gratis).
Our
first goal today is the church of St. George in the village of Kurbinovo in
Prespa. It was built in 1191, as seen from the inscription above the altar,
during the reign of Isaac II Angelos. In the 17th century it was abandoned, and
during the 19th century it was restored.
This small and
externally unobtrusive, one-aisled building with a semicircular apse, which is at
the same time the largest one-aisled church in Macedonia, hides in its interior
one of the most valuable murals in the eastern Christian art. The frescoes are
one of the most beautiful, the most original and the best preserved frescoes of
that period that reach us.The creation of the unknown masters in Kurbinovo is a
continuation of the work of the Nerezi masters, although it’s greatly notable the
great originality in the style and expression.
I
do not know what and how much Ryo could see, and still less to photograph from
all this, because the whole church, both from inside and outside is "
banded" with scaffolding of
wooden beams and planks (otherwise,
the biggest punishment for a Japanese is not to let him shoots, because they see the world through the lens of the camera).
And while Rio
climbed and descended the scaffolding, circled around the church, photographed
and chased his work, the conservation team working on the protection of the frescoes
arrived. It seems to me somewhat illogical to preserve the frescoes of the
church when it literally breaks apart, the static of the church and the
artificial terrace on which it is built is extremely disturbed, almost all
gypsum seals for monitoring the movement in statics are broken, but they know
their job I guess, they are grown up enough!
We continued to
Mariovo, to see the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Manastir. The air
conditioning in the vehicle works with full power and it’s very pleasant
inside, but the thermometer shows that outside the temperature is incredible 54
degrees Celsius!!!
The monastery
church is a three-nave basilica, dedicated to three saints: the central nave is
dedicated to the Mother of God, the northern one to Archangel Michael, and the
southern to St. Nicholas. According to the architectural type of the church,
two construction phases can be noticed of which the first one from 1095, and
its present form was obtained after the second phase in 1266, when it has been
restored by the abbot Acacius. The fresco painting was carried out five years
later, in 1271. The stylistic analysis of the wall painting in the church shows
that several painters have worked, among which is the painter-refendary John,
who is considered to be the same John, the creator of the icon of St. George
from the homonymous church in Struga, dating from 1266/67.
There are also
ongoing works in this church, the floor is completely excavated, some
researches and investigations are carried out for its reconstruction, tells us the
Archimandrite Nikola, with whom, after we finished our job, we had a pleasant
conversation with a glass of cold water and after saying “goodbye” we continued
our trip. We got out of the Mariovo hell when we got back on the road leading
to Pletvar, but neither here it is much fresher.
We had heard from
before about the so called "Marble lake" near the village of
Belovodica, which is located right after the Pletvar passage, and in those
moments of hellfire, that looked as the best option for refreshment. We broke
off the road and we embarked on an adventure.
A bit of
asphalt, more macadam, and most of some kind of road from embanked marble
gravel, as well as large stones, worthy of Camel trophy contest, but with
strong torments, and even a stronger determination, we got somehow to the
targeted goal, and there-paradise beauty and silence.
After the nice
refreshment in the clear water, that who knows from where it has come and
filled this pretty big pit, left after the exploitation of marble blocks, we brotherly
divided a whole can of beer and continued our journey.
Our next target is
the village of Drenovo near Kavadarci and the church of The Holy Virgin, which
was probably built in the first half of the 14th century, at the time of the
reign of Tsar Dushan, and painted by the painter Dimitri in 1356. On the way
through the dusty paths, besides the fields and vineyards, we somehow reached
Drenovo and the church.
After a short retention in order to shoot
some pictures and make some notes on the church, we left for Strumica, in order
to finish the planned visits to The Holy Virgin Eleousa in Velyusa and St.
Leontius in Vodocha as soon as possible, because our intestines were louder and
louder, because we did not eat anything except the “burek” (cheese or meat pie)
with yogurt in the morning in Resen, and the little frog in the stomach was croaking
for cold beer.
At first we went to
the first one because it was a little farther from Strumica than Vodocha. Church
of The Holy Virgin in Velyusa was built in 1080 by the monk Manuel, who later
became the bishop of Strumica. The church has preserved its original
architecture and is the only such object from the 11th century in Macedonia. It
has a trefoil form with an eight-sided dome and a domed quadrifoil chapel on
the southern side. Inside the church, in addition to the authentic marble altar
screen and floor mosaic, only a small part of the famous wall paintings carried
out between 1085 and 1093.
From Velyusa, we headed towards Vodocha,
getting closer to Strumica, barely waiting to finally finish the day with
plenty of food and a lot of cold beer before we went to a deserved rest in the
comfort of the Hotel Sirius, and the day was really very long and hard .
The complex of the Vodocha sanctuary,
composed of three churches, is located about four kilometers west of Strumica,
in the village of Vodocha. The oldest of them is the eastern three-nave domed
church that was smashed after the collapse of Samuel's state in 1018, and the
oldest fresco here is the presentation of an unidentified saint from the late X
century.
The second part of the complex is made
up of the Western Small cross-shaped church with a dome, built in the period
1018-1037.
The middle domed church is the largest
one and represents the episcopal church, which is concluded according to the
synthronon in the altar apse. It has been erected at the end of the 11th and
the beginning of the 12th century and is dedicated to St. Leontius, one of forty
martyrs of Sebaste. Only some frescoes with representations of six Bishops and
the fresco of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are preserved from the fresco
painting of this church. In the complex itself, two monastery baths, a lodge
with commercial accessories and a rich medieval necropolis with over 1000
graves from 13th until the 20th century have been researched. The church was
ruined in the 13th century, after which it was abandoned and a prominent
medieval necropolis arose then in its vicinity.
On the remains of the foundations of
the former churches, the restoration was completed in 1979 and today it is
clearly visible, according to the lead band to where the remains were.
And while Ryo was “chasing” his work,
shooting, grabbing notes and sketches (and I made a bit of photos from both
churches), the evening slowly descended, and we managed to fool the hunger a
bit with the sweets offered by the nuns in the two monasteries.
Finally,
the end of the working part for today, the night already descended when we
headed towards the Hotel Sirius. After registering and short staying here, we
went to meet my friend and former (and also now a temporary) neighbor Iko, a
native of Strumica, and a naturalized Ohrid citizen, whom I called from Vodocha
to take us to some good restaurant for the needfully necessary dinner and beer
refreshment in the hot Strumica night. The place was in the City Park, the
dinner was rich, varied, phenomenal (or at least it seemed to us because of the
big starvation), were didn’t even try to count the big glasses of cool beer,
and the beautiful live music only increased our experience.
We
have already deeply stepped into the night, and in the morning we have to get
up early, we have another task in Strumica and then the direction-Greece. So we
got back to the hotel and, as long as my head was on my way to the pillow, I fall
asleep ...
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| The church St. George in Kurbinovo in Prespa, built in 1191 |
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| The Kurbinovo church "banded" with scaffolding of wooden beams and planks both from the outside and inside |
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| In Mariovo's hell of over 40 degrees Celsius |
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| The church of St. Nicholas in the Mariovo village of Manastir |
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| The interior was excavated for research and reconstruction, as the archimandrite Nikola informed us |
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| For me, the most beautiful Archangel Michael in our medieval fresco painting |
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"Marble lake" near the village of Belovodica in which we found salvation from the hellfire
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| The church of the Holy Virgin in the village of Drenovo, Kavadarci, from the first half of the 14th century |
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| The church of the Holy Virgin in the village of Velyusa near Strumica, built in 1080 |
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| The church of St. Leontius in the village of Vodocha, erected at the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century |
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| The marble altar screen of the church of St. Leontius in Vodocha |
