Byzantine church · 1295
A church of 1295 by the Upper Gate, painted by Michael and Eutychios, later called St. Clement because his relics were kept here.
These are the stories you can open in the 3D view, each at its own numbered point on the model.
This is the church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos. An inscription over the west door records that it was built in 1295 by Progon Sgouros, a relative of the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II, and his wife Eudokia. It stands just inside the Upper Gate, on a slope with lawns. With the galleries added later, its footprint is about 24 by 17 metres.
Inside, this is a cross-in-square church: the dome rests on four free-standing piers, and a second, blind dome covers the narthex at the west end. Outside you can read the plan in the roofs. The four arms of the cross end in tall gables, each with a large round arch framing a pair of windows, and over the middle rises the octagonal drum with an arched niche on every face.
The walls inside were painted in the same year, 1295. The frescoes are widely attributed to the painters Michael Astrapas and Eutychios, whose names are reported as signed in the paintings. The church is dedicated to the Mother of God. Visitors report that photographs are not allowed inside, so take your time and look instead.
Under Ottoman rule, St. Clement's own church of St. Panteleimon at Plaošnik was turned into a mosque. His relics were brought here, and people began to call this church St. Clement. After St. Sophia also became a mosque, Peribleptos served as the cathedral of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, from the 15th to the 18th century. In 2002 the relics went back to the rebuilt church at Plaošnik.
In 1364 and 1365 Bishop Gregory of Devol added a chapel on the north side, then one on the south, and an open portico round the church. Later these were walled in. That is why the church seems wrapped in low galleries of rubble stone, with timber beams laid in the walls, small square windows and long tiled roofs, while the church of 1295 rises above them.
The tall polygonal apse at the east end is the richest façade of the church. Deep blind niches climb its faces, and the brickwork between them is dense and decorative. The builders combined stone, tufa and brick: rubble stone lower down, more brick higher up. Compare it with the plain rubble of the later galleries beside it, and with the drum above.
The Icon Gallery stands in the church precinct. It holds icons from the 11th to the 19th century, and about thirty of them are counted among major works. The archbishop's palace once stood beside the church; it burned in the 19th century, in 1862 according to one source. The gallery has its own ticket and its own opening hours, which change through the year.
Typical prices are our estimates for orientation, not menu prices. Check opening hours on the spot.
Walk around the model, switch between day and night, and hear each story read aloud in English, Macedonian or Turkish.
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