The church Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, village of Velestovo

The church Dormition of the Holy Mother of God is single-nave built with semi-oval arch roof and semicircular apse on the East Side.

A few decades ago, the frescos were painted over with a new ‘layer’ of paintings but the old arrangement of the portrayals and the entirety has not been violated. It has been conserved and protected in 1966. At the same time a few inscriptions in Old Church Slavic were discovered.

The painting of the church begun in 1444 in the month of May and the frescos were painted with the support of the priest Georgy, then Stanec, his brother Miho, Rajko Dobrilov, Dabec and Petko.

According to the second inscription, which is located above the western entrance of the church, the remainder of the temple’s surface is covered with frescos in 1450/1.

The founders are mentioned in the second inscription: V’lkota, Slavko, Gruban, Miho Jankov and Nicola. In this inscription, remarkably important is the supplement, from which we find out that in the time of the completion of the decoration in Velestovo on the throne of the Ohrid Archbishopric was the Archbishop Nicola.

On the vault - painted in the middle is the ‘Father of the days' and to the east are ‘Jesus Christ’ and ’the Prepared Throne’. Lower, along the wall, there are frescos of the prophets painted to the waist.

On the highest surfaces of the arch roof and on the upper parts the Great Feasts are painted: Annunciation, the Birth of Christ, the Presentation, The Dormition, Palm Sunday and others.

Painted on the south wall, next to the iconostasis is the ‘Vision of St. Peter of Alexandria’, and in front of the iconostasis, painted as a patron, is the Holy Virgin holding in Her hands the young Christ, next to her is St. Nicola the Miracle-worker, St. Clement of Ohrid and St. Marina.

On the north wall the Holy warriors are painted: St. Theodor Stratilat on a horse, Procopy, Mercurius, Dimitry and St. Georg the Victory-bearer.

The fresco-painters of the elder paintings – presumably two – on the whole left better paintings, calmer and more confident drawings. Their carefully painted forms gained, on the north wall, unpleasant firmness, expressed with sharp contrasts of darkness and light, but neither did they elude the provincial sweetening of the expression, as is for example on St. Mercurius.

In the presentations on the lower zones of the south wall /St. Peter of Alexandria, St. Nicola and St. Clement/ evoke the best plasticity on the Ohrid paintings from the last decades of the 14th century.

G. Angeličin - Žura

About the churches in Macedonia

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