MONASTERY OF MARKO (МАНАСТИР МАНАСТИР)

This Orthodox monastery (Марков Манастир/Markov Manastrir) houses remarkable ^14th-century frescoes. It is named after the Serbian prince Marko Kraljević (1335-1395), a vassal of the Ottomans and the last Christian ruler of the region. It was founded by his father, Vukašin Mrnjavčević, in 1346. Around the catholicon (main church) dedicated to St. Demetrios, there is a pleasant garden, a konak (inn) with a small museum, lodgings, a campanile, a well, workshops, a bakery, a mill and St. Mark's chapel. The monastery is remarkable in that it was one of the few Christian buildings preserved during the conquest of Skopje by the Ottomans in 1392. An important intellectual center until the ^19th century, it has been occupied again since 1991 by a small community of nuns preparing a very good rakija. Built between 1346 and 1377, the catholicon follows a simple cross plan, with a narthex (vestibule), a central dome supported by four columns and a smaller dome on its western side. An exonarthex was added in 1830, by the Ottoman aristocrat Hamzi Paşa. The interior houses a beautiful carved wooden iconostasis (some of whose icons were stolen in 2013).

Frescoes. The walls are entirely covered by the original ^14th-century frescoes, made by anonymous painters and on the whole well preserved. A vast cycle is dedicated to the twelve great Orthodox feasts: Nativity of the Mother of God, Nativity of Christ, Entry into Jerusalem, Dormition of the Mother of God, etc. Next to the iconostasis is Christ Pantocrator ("Almighty") wearing the attributes of the Byzantine emperors and surrounded by two archangels and St. John the Baptist with wings, with the Virgin Queen on her right with her mantle embroidered with large crosses, the scenes representing Saints Demetrios (above the entrance door) and Nicholas, as well as that of the Massacre of the Innocents (an episode recounted in the Gospel according to Matthew, according to which Herod, king of Judea, ordered the murder of all children under two years of age after the birth of Jesus), which illustrates the concern for realism of the painters of the time. Finally, on the north wall, the portrait of Marko Kraljević and that of Vukašin Mrnjavčević were rediscovered on either side of the entrance door during restoration work in 1963. King Marko is depicted in royal attire, burnt ochre color, decorated with pearls and precious stones, holding in his hand the text relating the foundation of the monastery in Old Serbian Slavonic.