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Prilep, the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel
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Place
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The Church of the Holy Archangel Michael is located in the Varoš, in the suburbs of the "Mark's Tower" fortress in Prilep. There are opinions that the original church was built in the 10th century. Such a point of view is based on the content of a cyrillic inscription on a marble pillar from 996, which was used in the 19th century to support the roof structure of the church porch. In the inscription, according to the reading of Jordan Ivanov, Bishop Andrew, who died on February 17th of the said year, is mentioned.
Architecture:
Today's church is an interesting architectural achievement. It is a single-aisle church with an irregular foundation, built on very unfavorable terrain. It consists of an altar area and a nave with two bays. Under the floor in the western part of the church there are two rooms, probably burial chapels, contemporary with the construction of the main part of the church. The church today has a (reconstructed) dome over the western bay, but judging by the appearance of the church in the portrait of the founder, it also existed above the main part of the nave. Sašo Korunovski, who researched the architecture of the Archangel Michael's church in the most detail, recognized in its construction the peculiarities of Constantinople architecture - primarily, in the fact that there is a single-aisle church with two domes in the middle. He especially had in mind the central church in the Pantokrator monastery complex, also dedicated to the Archangel Michael. On the other hand, he found analogies for the two-story solution of the church in well-known monuments on the territory of today's Bulgaria (Bačkovo, Asenovgrad). The Church of the Archangel Michael is the endowment of the "great chartoularios of the West" Jovan, who, as a monk, is represented in the founder's portrait on the western wall, holding a model of the church in his hands. Next to his portrait is badly damaged dedicatory inscription. Two damaged figures of the founder(?) are located in one of the underground chapels of the temple, probably dedicated to St. Nicholas, who is shown intersecting for the mentioned figures to Christ. It is possible that they are members of the founder Jovan's family.
Painting:
The painting of the church, which dates back to the eighth or ninth decade of the 13th century, represents a valuable achievement of early palaeologan painting. Along with the remains of paintings in the altar, most of the wall paintings have been preserved in the western part of the church, where Saint Nicholas, figures of holy monks (first zone), figures of martyrs (middle zone), and, in higher zones, are represented two cycles, the cycle of the Passion of Christ, and, above him, the cycle of the patron saint of the temple, Archangel Michael.
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