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Prilep, Church of Saint Nicholas
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Place
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Description
The Church of St. Nicholas is located in the medieval lower town of Prilep (today Varoš). It is situated a few hundred meters away from the medieval marketplace, at the foot of the medieval fortress known as the "Markovi kuli." It is a small single-aisled building with an externally three-sided apse. The lower part of the building is constructed with roughly cut stone, including spolia, while the upper part is built of stone and brick. The significant differences in construction and treatment between the lower and upper parts of the facades are the result of two construction phases. The frescoes inside the Church of St. Nicholas consist of two stylistically different parts, found in the altar apse and the nave. The dedicatory inscription above the southern doors of the church reveals that the frescoes in the nave were commissioned by Vego Kapza and his wife Maria in 1298.
Architecture
The first phase of construction:
The high stone base belongs to the first construction phase of the Church of St. Nicholas (2.6m), made of rough-hewn stone of various dimensions and several rectangular marble blocks used as spolia. These are the remains of a small single-aisled church, built with rough stone.
Parallels: In the older layer of the building, there are no stylistic or any other elements that could clearly indicate the construction period. The simplicity of their plan and the construction material suggest that they were built by local craftsmen. Similarities have been observed with objects of domestic architecture from the second half of the 12th century, whose remains have been found in the area of the present-day settlement of Varoš.
Dating: end of the 12th century
The second phase of construction:
The upper part of the church, set on a high stone base, corresponds to the second construction phase. The predominant characteristic of the interior space is the dominance of height over the length of the church. The facade surfaces are entirely covered with ceramic plastic decoration. The quality of the exterior is emphasized by continuous horizontal bands made of various brick motifs, representing a distinctive feature of late Byzantine, and particularly Epirote architecture.
Parallels: St. John Kaneo in Ohrid; the Church of the Theotokos Peribleptos in Ohrid; the Church of Christ the Savior in Borje, near Korcha (Koresha), Albania; Panagia (the Panagia Kyriotissa and Ag. Theodoroi) in Preventza, Greece; Ag. Vassileios stin Gefyra in Arta, the Narthex of the Church of Ag. Theodora in Arta.
Dating: ca. 1285-1295
Painted Decoration
The first fresco unit: consists of frescoes in the altar apse and the lunette of the western facade. A conservative artistic approach was applied, based on expressive means inherited from the Comnenian art, but adapted in a provincial spirit of the second half of the 13th century.
Parallels: St. John Kaneo in Ohrid; the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Manastir in Mariovo; the Church of St. Demetrios in Prilep; the Church of St. George Omorphoklisias near Kastoria
Dating: third quarter of the 13th century, or 1298
The second fresco unit: consists of frescoes in the naos. The work of the two painters has been assessed as a fusion of old and new concepts during the stylistically transitional period of the late 13th century.
Parallels: Virgin Mavriotissa in Kastoria; Vlacherna monastery in Arta; The Church of Archangel Michael in Kostaniani near Ioannina; the Church of Taxiarches in Kostaniani near Ioannina; Ag. Demetrios Katsouris in Plissioi near Arta.
Dating: 1298
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Veles, the Church of Saint Demetrius
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Place
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In the immediate vicinity of the town of Veles, that is, at the southern exit from the town along the road to Gradsko, on the right side of the leveled plateau, there is a monastery complex with a church dedicated to St. Saint Dimitri. The entire complex is surrounded by massive walls, which contain the remains of older monastery walls. The lodgings and other buildings in the monastery are from recent times. At the southern end of the monastery is the Catholicon dedicated to Saint Demetrius.
Written sources:
Only information about the history of the church is coming from the period of its reconstruction in 1855. In the inscription on the south side of the nave it states that the church was renovated and colorfully painted that year.
Description of the church:
The church consists of an altar area, a nave and a narthex. The orientation is from east to west. The central, largest part is occupied by the nave. The altar of the church keeps the same width as the nave. On the east side there is a wide semicircular apse. To the north of the apse there is a small semicircular niche of the prosthesis. The border between the nave and the narthex at the church of St. Demetrius is clearly defined by a wall, and communication between them is only through a narrow opening. The narthex of the church is made in the form of a square with small deviations in the dimensions of its four sides. It also has an upper floor. The church originally had three entrances, two on the north side and one on the west side. The entrance on the western side of the narthex was later closed, so today only the entrances on the north wall are functional, one leading to the narthex and the other directly to the nave of the church. All entrance openings are formed in an identical manner; the facade is made of brick, which in the upper part forms the arch of the opening in a radial arrangement. There are only three windows on the church. There are two windows on the north wall. The form of the third window placed in the apse of the church was radically changed and today there is a rectangular wooden window here, placed during the 19th century reconstruction. According to the width of the niche on the eastern facade, but also according to the arched segments on the inner side of the niche, the original window used to be in a shape of an arched monofora. Above the nave and the altar area is a barrel vault. The narthex has an independent structural system from the one in the nave. Its main feature is that it is built on two floors. The lower part (ground floor) is covered with a barrel vault in the east-west direction, and it is lower than the vault in the nave. Today, the upper structure above the narthex upper floor is wooden, but there are indications that it was originally different. Namely, in the four corners of the floor in the upper part, at the height of the beginning of the arches of the opening, there are the remains of the vault construction. They have a pyramidal shape (with the top turned downwards), which clearly shows that there was a cross vault here before. Later, when the cruciform vault collapsed, some of these pyramidal remains were partially added to provide horizontally leveled corner plinths for the start of a new wooden structure.
Dating architecture:
14th century (belongs to the stylistic group from the end of the XIII century)
Facade decoration:
The facades of the Church of St. Demetrius in Veles, as well as many other churches stylistically related to early Paleologan architecture, are composed of horizontal zones. The most characteristic example of this style at Saint Dimitri is the north facade. The two entrances placed on this facade have been moved to the west. The entrance to the narthex is obviously settled in vertical coordination with the other elements placed on the parts of the narthex, i.e. bell tower. The lower zone of the northern facade is coated with white lime paint, but the paint layer is thin and the structure of the wall is easy to recognize. In the lowest part, there is a plinth of roughly broken stone with occasional pieces of brick inserted. Upwards, to the end of this lower zone, masonry follows with the cloisonné technique. It is executed quite properly with two horizontal rows of bricks and two vertically placed bricks alternating with stone. The boundary between the lower and upper zones of the northern facade is marked by a horizontal toothed frieze. At the foot of the upper zone there is a series of three niches. They are formed with two rows of stepped bricks. The western one was made as a blind niche, while in the other two there are single windows. In the space between the niches there is a wide decorative frieze in opus reticulatum technique. Today, its western end is partially damaged, but it is clear that it originally extended along the entire length of the northern facade. Directly above it, on the eastern half of the facade, there is a meander frieze. The next two rows of the upper zone of the northern facade were made using the cloisonné technique. The end of the facade is decorated with a double dogtooth strip that continues to the parts of the narthex, which also marks the end of the second zone of the facade. Upwards, a third zone will be formed only on the part of the narthex.
Parallels:
The origin of the tower over the western entrance should perhaps be sought in the churches of Epirus. Facade decorations and decoration similar to the Church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos in Ohrid or the Church Panagia Parigoritissa in Arta.
Painting:
Recently it was discovered traces of painting in the narthex of the church. There are two scenes preserved, one is the portrait of a founder with a model of the church in his left hand, and the other scenes is part of the Last Judgment composition. The Last Judgment scenes include a man-eating fish and several sea animals.
The donor portrait is depicted on the east wall, and the Last judgment is on the north?
Dating of the painting:
The painting most likely dates from the end of the 13th century.
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