ZRZE MONASTERY

This Orthodox monastery (Зрзески Манастир/Zrzeski Manastir) has a bedtime name (pronounced "zerzé"), but it's renowned for its ^16th-century frescoes, icons and enchanting setting. Surrounded by cliffs and oak forests, it sits atop a hill at 960 m altitude. Dominated by Mount Dautica (2,178 m), it offers sweeping views over the Pelagonian plain. The complex was founded around 1340 by a Serbian monk named German, and became an important staging post for Serbian kings in the region. It then went through several phases of decline and rebirth, before being fully restored in 2016. Today, it is home to a dozen monks and novices who paint and sell icons. There are several churches and the remains of a religious occupation dating back to the^5th century. Beneath the retaining wall and cliff face lie some 30 caves that served as cells, workshops and tombs for hermits from the ^9th century onwards. It's possible to visit around ten of them. Among them, an ancient chapel preserves a badly damaged fresco.

Onufri frescoes. The highlight of the visit is the catholicon. The main church is dedicated to the Transfiguration (Преображение/Preobraženje), the episode in which Christ reveals his divine nature to the apostles Peter, James and John. Modest in size, without a dome or transept, it was built in the ^14th century and remodeled many times. The interior houses frescoes painted in 1535 by Onufri, Albania's greatest painter, whose secret of sparkling reds has never been discovered. But about half of his works have disappeared here, especially on the vault. Those that remain bear the marks of regular hammering to adhere a plaster to paint new frescoes in the ^18th century. The latter, of poor workmanship, were removed in 1963 to restore one of the masterpieces by the archpriest and painter Onufri. The lower sections are dedicated to the founders of Christian monasticism. Two small scenes are painted on either side of the door: on the left, the apparition of the angel to Saint Pachomius the Great, considered the founder of Christian cenobitism in the ^4th century; on the right, the scene in which Saint Mary the Egyptian, a former prostitute who became a hermit in the^5th century, receives communion from the anchorite Zosimus of Palestine. On the upper sections, the west wall is decorated with the scene of the Communion of the Apostles. Above is a rare depiction of the Old Testament Trinity: the three angels who received Abraham's hospitality are seated before the calf that has just been killed for them. Note, on the left, the heifer lamenting her slaughtered calf: this is the symbol of Mary mourning the death of Christ. The upper sections of the side walls are decorated with the Passion cycle. Five scenes are partially preserved. On the north wall, Christ's death is evoked by the theme of the Anapeson: the adolescent Jesus asleep with his eyes open, with Mary at his side.

Miraculous icons. The wooden iconostasis dates from the ^18th century. It has no real artistic merit, and its two large icons are copies. But not just any copies. These are copies of the country's most famous icons, now on display at the Museum of North Macedonia in Skopje: Christ of Salvation and Eternal Life, painted by Metropolitan Jovan in 1394, and the Virgin Pelagonitissa ("of Pelagonia"), painted by his brother Makarije Zograf in 1422. Note their location. As a rule, the Virgin's icon is placed to the left of the royal doors. Here, however, the Pelagonitissa is on the right and Christ on the left. This is a Zrze tradition. According to legend, the two icons miraculously switched places one night. In the morning, the monks put them back in place, but the following night, the two sacred images were once again found inverted, as if the Virgin Mary insisted on looking in the direction of her son. Since then, the monks have never replaced the two icons (or their copies).

Orthodox Trinity. Behind the iconostasis, the sanctuary is reserved for the communion clergy. But you can still see some of Onufri's frescoes. The apse is adorned with an Orante, the traditional representation of the "praying" Mother of God(orans in Latin), standing with hands raised and outstretched. Nicknamed the "Virgin of the Sign", she symbolizes the arrival of Christ. In a medallion, she carries the rare Christ Emmanuel ("He who will come as Savior", usually depicted as an adolescent). Even more exceptional, however, is the "Christ with three faces" medallion on the vault above the Orante: a figure with three heads, youthful and beardless, representing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This theme, which Onufri would later repeat in the churches of Kastoria (Greece) and Elbasan (Albania), was unprecedented in the ^16th century. It appeared in a context where some of the local clergy were under Catholic influence. This representation reaffirmed the Orthodox dogma that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God. Catholics, on the other hand, defend the idea of the Filioque ("and of the Son" in Latin), i.e. that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both God and Christ. This is the main point of theological divergence between Eastern and Western Christians.