| Photo Information |
Copyright: Boshko Slavevsky (starky)
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 322 W: 2 N: 43]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-n-s.gif) (2857) |
| Genre: Places |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2008-05-17 |
| Categories: Architecture |
| Camera: Fuji FinePix S 5600 |
| Exposure: f/3.2 |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2008-06-15 12:14 |
| Viewed: 329 |
| Points: 10 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
With a Holy Liturgy on August 11, 2002 , at the Plaoshnik locality in Ohrid the re¬established Clement's monastery was consecrated. It is dedicated to the doctor and miracle-worker St. Panteleimon. Also, after 530 years spent in other locations and after 35 years from the restoration of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, a part of the holy relics of St. Clement, that were kept in the church Holy Mother of God Peribleptos, are placed and are resting in the tomb that the pan -Slavic bishop and enlightener dug with his own hands.
The re-established Clement's monastery, from which the roots of Christianity and education and culture of the entire Slavic world have spread, was made accessible to all believers and followers who can pay respect at the tomb of the protector and patron of the City of Ohrid - St. Clement of Ohrid.
In the newly built church embedded are the preserved remains of the original Clement's monastery, that was demolished and turned into a mosque in the 15th century. The mosque was later destroyed in the powerful earthquake in the 17th century. Within the Clement's monastery the first Slavic university was located, the coreof the Slavic literacy and culture, the place where the foundations were built of the Ohrid Literary School. Clement, the first writer among the Macedonian Slavs, has written his literary works here, among which is the masterpiece of the medieval Slavic literature "The Praise to Cyril".
Here a hospital was located, about which the Ohrid archbishops Teophilact in the 12th and Dimitriya Homatiyan in the 13th century - both biographers of Clement -- write that healings were performed here without use of magic, but with suggestions and hypnotizing, and the ill were given potions and teas made of various herbs. Clement of Ohrid is considered to be the first Slavic composer and music pedagogue.
In his university, Clement has prepared 3500 students who have spread the Slavic literacy to all Orthodox countries, even as far as Russia.
The archaeological researches in 1965., confirmed the fact that Clement has re¬established an abandoned monastery' that had a triconchal shape (the shape of a three-leafed clover). With the development of the church life, increased were the needs for larger space for the believers and students of Clement, so he has built an additional church on the west side.
Both of the churches from the times of Clement underwent smaller of bigger modifications. In the 14th century a new church was built by the official Kesar Duka and his son Dimitriya, and in the 15th century the Turks - conquerors turn the church into a mosque. The citizens moved the relics of Clement to the church Mother of God Peribleptos - built in 1295; it is since known as the church St. Clement.
As we have mentioned, above the Clement's church, St. Panteleimon at Plaoshnik (previously called Imaret), in the 15th century a mosque was erected by Sinan Jusuf Cheleby Ohrizade. In the immediate vicinity of the remains of the mosque, destroyed by a powerful earthquake in the 17th century, there is the tomb in which in 1493 Sinan Cheleby was buried. As his legacy, he has erected the mosque that is mentioned under several names: Royal Mosque, Sinan Cheleby Mosque, Sultan Fati Mehmed - Mosque, etc. From 1491 preserved is a document in Arabic language, according to which Sinan Jusufi donating all of his property has established the charity institution "Imaret” which means "Dinner Table", for the poor and the orphans, an institution that existed until 1912 and where every Monday and Thursday free bread and soup were given to the Muslim and the Christian population.
In the year 2000 the Ministry of Culture provided a great deal of funds and a priority was given to the completion of the archaeological researches in the interior of the Clement's monastery, and these researches discovered more than five hundred tombs of monks and nuns, and rich findings in the tombs: fragments of gilded attires, a large number of large encolpions - double pectoral crosses with the depictions of Virgin Mary and the Annunciation that were used as sacred objects to the monks from the Clement's monastery. Discovered were also numerous clasps, a large number of Venetian. Roman and other coins, etc.
The foundations of the re-established Clement's church were built on December 8 2000 (the day that is celebrated as the Church and the Folk holiday St. Clement), and on the occasion of 2000 years of Christianity. This ceremonial event was preceded by exhaustive archaeological researches that did not stop during the building of the monastery, and they are continuing. They have discovered cultural layers from the antiquity to the present day, and this locality will present everything that the soil hid for thousands of years. Among the objects discovered, most impressive is the five-nave Episcopal basilica, the seat of the Episcopes of Lychnidos, that originates from the 4th century. In it discovered were: the great baptistery and numerous auxiliary objects, the floor mosaics of which raise Ohrid to the place where it belongs - the Jerusalem of the Balkans.
That is the eighth early Christian church discovered in Ohrid thus far, and most of them have the shape of a basilica. But certainly, by the excellence of the architectural form and the luxurious mosaics we can distinguish the ones in the area of Plaoshnik -Varosh, in Studenichishta, in the villages Oktisi and Radolishta.
The previously known poly-conchal church in the locality Plaoshnik, in the vicinity of the St. Clement's monastery, has been built in the shape of a four-leaf clover, with an exonarthex, narthex, atrium, annex-rooms on the sides and a baptistery in the south part. It was built on an older, antique construction. In the naos, the saved floor mosaics are with images of the flora and fauna of the Ohrid area. Various kinds of birds and animals are depicted - rabbits, deer, peacocks, ducks, fish and other intertwined with different geometrical figures. ITie most impressive in this basilica is the baptistery in the shape of a three-conch and with marvelous mosaics with anthropomorphic depictions of the four rivers of paradise: Gion, Fison, Tiger and Euphrates.
Its iconographic interpretation is a distinct example of the early Christian art. Namely, fitted into its conceptual and compositional entirety are the themes of the 'Four Rivers of Paradise' and the “Fountain of Life” often depicted in the baptistery and the other rooms of the churches, which is conceptually connected to the act of Baptism.
The four rivers of paradise: Gion, Fison, Tiger and Euphrates are portrayed like human heads out of whose mouths springs water. Those are commonly the only human presentations on the floor mosaics from the early Christian period in Macedonia. Analogies can only be traced in Solin, the Croatian seaside and Sicily.
Judging by the style of the decorative plastic and the mosaic, in the choice of the painting decoration, just as well by their analogies, the final phase of the formation of this grand church (dimensions 43 by 39 m) took place in the second half of the 5th century. The effort of the artistic church dignitaries to monumentalize the 4th old building a few decades later affirms that this monument has been given the significance of an exclusively respectable church, a fact that we relate with the proposal for its cathedral use.
In one of the rooms of this basilica an inscription has been found, left by the authors who according to the canons remained anonymous:
" This has been done for a blessing by those for whose name God only knows". |
Teresat has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekLens members may rate photo notes. |
|
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1318 W: 70 N: 1882]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(7651)![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor [C: 1787 W: 75 N: 0]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-g-n.gif)
(19850)![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 178 W: 0 N: 58]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(2438)