SAINT-DEMETRIOS CHURCH OF TUMINEC

This Orthodox church (Црква Свети Димитриј/Crkva Sveti Dimitrij, Kisha e Shën Mitrit) is located in the village of Tuminec, near the Prespa Lake. Built in the 12th century, it is decorated with 18th century frescoes among which are the portraits of the protomartyr St. Stephen and the Mother of God Platytera ("Greater than Heaven" in Greek), known as the "Virgin of the Sign", with her hands open in prayer (orante) and carrying a medallion of the Christ child on her chest. Another portrait, rarer in Orthodox iconography, is that of Saint Roman the Melodious, a Byzantine poet of the 6th century. Tuminec (about 500 inhabitants, all Slav-Macedonian) is located not far from the border with North Macedonia, 6 km southeast of the border post of Gorica-Stenje. The village has two other Orthodox churches in its vicinity. On a cliff above the lake to the northeast, near the border, the rock church of the Mother of God has well-preserved frescoes from the 14th and 18th centuries. To the south, on the coast, about an hour's walk away, the monastery of Saint Marina preserves the frescoes of a medieval church. Also to the south and the coast, a Neolithic village was discovered in 2007, which was one of the most important centers of production of polished stone axes in the Balkans in the 6th-5th millennium BC. The site is not open to visitors, but most of the finds here are preserved in the Korça Archaeological Museum.