This monastery complex is comprised of church, tower-belfry, storage building with several subsidiary premises and the renovated konaks (mansions) built in the 19th century. It is considered that the donor of the church Holy Archangel Mikhail is the despot Jovan Oliver who built this church in 1341 on the foundations of an older basilica from the time of the anchoret Gavril.

As most significant period of the existence of the church in the village of Lesnovo is considered to be the middle of 15th century, when the Serbian Tzar Dusan promoted the abbess in archbishopric and at the same time entitled the church for a seat of the newly established eparchy of Zletovo.

Today the church is a part of Bregalnica eparchy.

In the 15th century, during the implementation of certain corrections on the same place as the previous one, to the church a priprata (porch) was annexed.

One century later, in the space around the church several monastery cells and dining room were built, from which today only some remains left.

In the 18th century the monastery played quite significant role in spreading the Slavic literacy. In that place a literary school was established. The monastery church belongs to the order of cross-like churches. Its dome is leaned on four solid columns. The altar apse is six-sided form the external side. The narthex was built few years after the construction of the church. Above it, by example of the church itself, a cupola is transcended. Thus the narthex and the church create a compact unity.

The fresco-decoration is work of four authors. The names of three of them are inscribed on the frieze.

The name of the fourth icon painter is completely wiped out. Because of the fact that that the signatures are not written on each of the separate icons, the determination of the authorship is almost impossible.

The precise, clear drawing with reach ornamentals and color is expressed on the frescoes with the figure of Archangel Mihail, on the portrait of the donor of the church and the scenes with the "Scab patients" , "Dormition of Virgin", "Mikhail saves Constantinople from Saracens" and others.

There is a considerable difference in the artistic expression of the frescoes, where the expression is less precise, almost rough. This could be noticed at the figures of the four Evangelists Matej (Mathew), Marko, Luca and Jovan, than at the scenes where the Resurrection of Lazar is presented, the Betrayal of Judah, Healing of the blind man etc.

From the fresco-decorations of the narthex the ones that distinguish are the compositions from the life of Christ and the acts of Saints, as well as the illustrations of David’s psalms. The portraits of Tzar Dusan and Tzaritza Elena are among the most monumental in the medieval fresco-painting. For the first time in this presentation the Son of God appears, unlike the usual one where the angels are the ones playing the role of distributors of wreaths.

In the Lesnovski monastery of particular significance is the iconostasis from 1814 made in relatively more massive carving, from the master’s chisel of the well-known Miyak school led by Petre Filipovski Garkata. It is their first work of art, after which the iconostases in the churches Sv. Spas (Holy Salvation) in Skopje, Sv. Jovan Bigorski in the Debar region, as well as the one in the church St. Nikola in Kruševo that was destroyed in the fire that devastated that church. The current iconostasis is replacing an older one, that is being dislocated from the church.

D. Kareva

About the churches in Macedonia

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