ST.ATHANASE CHURCH IN MOSCOW

Built in 1721, this Orthodox church (Kisha e Shën Thanasit) features remarkable frescoes by the greatest Albanian painter of the ^18th century, Kostandin Zografi. It is one of the few remaining testimonies to Moscopole's golden age, most other churches having been destroyed in 1788 and 1916. The building, typical of the local style, forms a rectangle measuring 19 x 8 m and reaches 9 m in height. The three naves are surmounted by two domes concealed beneath the roof, with a side gallery serving as an exonarthex. However, the frescoes in the exonarthex have suffered recent damage (graffiti, candle smoke). One cycle recounts the life of Saint Athanasius (^4th-century bishop of Alexandria and one of the "Doctors" and "Fathers of the Church"). Another is dedicated to the Apocalypse. Inside, the domes are adorned with portraits of Christ Pantocrator ("in majesty") and the Mother of God. Beneath the latter are the holy "hymnographers": theologians and musicians Como of Maïouma, John Damascene, Theodore Studite and Stephen the Sabatist, who in the Middle Ages wrote hymns sung during religious celebrations. The apse houses an astonishing scene from the Coronation of the Mother of God, in which Christ and God appear in the guise of Church hierarchs. Unusual in Christian art, this scene bears witness to the "Moscopole style". Because of the region's isolation during this period, painters developed highly unusual themes.