The most beautiful churches cathedrals basilicas and chapels Northern Macedonia

Overlooking the old town since 1840, this three-aisled basilica (Црквата Свети Пантелејмон/Crkvata Sveti Pantelejmon) is the seat of the Macedonian Orthodox diocese of Povadaria. Thanks to its incredible acoustics, due to clay pots filling the space between double walls, it is nicknamed the "Scala de Veles". It was designed by Andreja Damjanov (1813-1878), a native of the region and considered one of the most important Balkan architects of the ^19th century. He was also responsible for the Osogovo monastery near Kriva Palanka, among others.

This Orthodox church (Црква Свети Никола/Crkva Sveti Nikola) features frescoes dating from 1271 that survived the destruction of the First World War. Located in the hamlet of Manastir, 690 m above sea level, it was part of a monastery founded by Byzantine aristocrat Alexis Comnenus in 1095 and restored in 1266 by a higoumen (abbot) named Akakios. The rest of the buildings were destroyed in 1916. The church takes the form of a basilica with three naves: there are only four buildings of this type in the country, including Saint Sophia Cathedral in Ohrid. The central nave features scenes from the life of Christ and portraits of saints Demetrios, George, Theodore Tiron and Theodore the Stratilate. The south aisle is decorated with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas. In the north aisle, the portrait of the higoumene Akakios, who carries the church in miniature, remains. Manastir officially has three inhabitants and is part of the mountainous Mariovo region. Intense fighting took place here between the Serbian and Bulgarian armies in September 1916. Some 23 km to the south as the crow flies, on the summit of Mount Kajmakčalan (2,528 m above sea level), between Greece and northern Macedonia, stands a chapel that preserves the skulls of some of the 4,643 Serbian soldiers who died during the confrontation. The Bulgarians suffered fewer casualties (1,876 dead), but were forced to retreat, allowing French, Serbian and Russian troops to take Bitola in November 1916.

This small stone Orthodox church (Црква Света Петка/Crkva Sveta Petka) is one of the oldest in the Reka region. It dates from the ^16th century, but no longer features any valuable decoration. It is dedicated to Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans, an ^11th-century Eastern ascetic who took the place locally of Petka, the ancient deity of the South Slavs. Galičnik also boasts the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul (1931) and the chapel of Saint Petka, on the outskirts of the hamlet.

Located on Macedonia Street, next to the Mother Teresa Memorial House, this new Orthodox church (Црква Свети Константин и Елена) boasts five golden domes and a 50m-high campanile. Built in concrete from 2012, it was still not completed in 2023 (completion scheduled for 2024-2025). It takes its name from a former Orthodox church near the Vardar River, which was destroyed in the 1963 earthquake.

This small, single-nave Orthodox church (Црква Света Варвара/Crkva Sveta Varvara, Kisha e Shën Varvarës) was founded in 1597 by the St. John-Bigorvski monastery. The exterior walls are in poor condition, but the church features superb ^16th- and ^17th-century frescoes. The church stands a little way from the hamlet of Sredno Maalo/Средно Маало ("Middle Village"), part of the municipality of Rajčica/Рајчица (160 inhabitants), or Rajçicë/Rajçica in Albanian.

This Orthodox cave church (Црквата Свети Еразмо Охридски/Crkvata Sveti Erazmo Ohridski) is dedicated to a mysterious local saint, St. Erasmus of Ohrid, a tutelary figure for local Christians since the^5th century. According to legend, the cave and its surroundings were once home to a community of hermits founded by the saint. Extensively altered up to the present day, the church features frescoes painted between the ^13th and ^18th centuries, including a large portrait of Theodore Doukas Comnenus, Byzantine ruler of Macedonia and Thrace after the Crusaders took Constantinople in 1204. It remains one of the country's most important rock churches. Today, it is at the center of a small religious complex. The cult of Erasmus remained strong in the region, even after the arrival of the Slavs. Thus, some 200 m to the south, along the main road, the ruins of a large ^12th-century church, also dedicated to St. Erasmus, were recently uncovered, along with a necropolis containing 124 tombs dating from the ^6th to ^12th centuries. From the St. Erasmus complex, a short cement road (approx. 200 m) leads near the top of the Gabavci hill topped by a cross, where you'll find the rock chapel of St. Catherine (Света Екатерина), where you can enjoy a magnificent panorama of Lake Ohrid. Behind the chapel are the remains of the Engelana fortress founded by the Enhélien tribe in the ^4th century BC.

This Orthodox church (Црква Успение на Пресвета Богородица/Crkva Uspenie na Presveta Bogorodica) is a three-nave basilica completed in 1860. The greatest Mijak artists of the ^19th century worked here. The frescoes were painted by Dičo Zograf (1819-1872), a native of Tresonče. The carved wooden iconostasis was designed by Petar Filipovski (1780-1854) and made by his two brothers Marko and Jovan Filipovski. But twelve of the icons were stolen in 2011.

This small Orthodox church (Црква Свети Никола/Crkva Sveti Nikola) is home to some of the oldest and best-preserved Byzantine frescoes in the country. However, the dating of these frescoes is the subject of much debate among specialists. The building is also distinguished by its unusual architecture: a short but tall single nave. It was built in two phases, between 1190 and 1290, and belongs to the Varoš district below the Marko towers. The delightful little garden surrounding the building has yielded a wealth of archaeological discoveries: the remains of Slavic dwellings, 170 Greek tombs dating from the ^12th to the ^19th century, and Roman and Serbian jewelry and coins on display at Prilep's national museum. On the façade, three niches are adorned with portraits of Saint Nicholas, painted in the late ^13th century, and two other saints, in the upper niches, added in the ^17th century. At the entrance, an inscription states that the church was completed in 1298 thanks to a donation from a nobleman named Vega, his son Kapsa and his wife Maria. Inside, the decor is superb, with magnificent, well-preserved colors.

Problematic dating. Art historians do not agree with each other. For some, the frescoes were painted in two distinct periods: in 1191 for those in the apse (Adoration of the Lamb of God and Virgin on throne) and around 1298 for the nave (cycles of the Passion and Orthodox feasts, large portraits of saints and prophets). The others would have been painted at the same time, around 1298, but by two separate teams: the apse adopts a "conservative" style similar to the frescoes in the church of St. Panteleimon in Nerezi (near Skopje), while the program for the rest of the church follows a more innovative trend that developed in the Byzantine Empire from the second half of the ^13th century onwards. Among these, the depictions of the Last Supper and Jesus on the Mount of Olives are among the finest in the country. The district of Varoš is a former village that was recently incorporated into the town of Prilep. In the Middle Ages, it was the seat of the Pelagonian bishopric, which explains the presence here of numerous churches, including the ^13th-century Church of St. Demetrios, the ^14th-century Churches of St. Athanasius, St. Peter and St. Paul and the Monastery of Varoš, as well as the ^15th-century Church of the Mother of God.

More often referred to as Mali Sveti Vrači ("Little Holy Doctors"), this small medieval Orthodox church (Црква Свети Кузман и Дамјан/Crkva Sveti Kuzman i Damjan) is dedicated to the Anargyrian (who heal "without asking for money") saints, Como and Damian, Arab physicians and martyrs of the ^4th century. Neither its exact date of construction nor its founder are known, but it houses the oldest carved wooden iconostasis in Northern Macedonia. This one was made in the ^14th century and was renovated in 1964. Very precious with its twisted pillars, it is 3 m long and 1.90 m high. The frescoes, most of them very damaged, were made in the same period. Most notable is the beautiful portrait of the Mother of God Episkepis ("Protector" in Greek) carrying the infant Christ. This is shown on the 1,000 denar banknotes. In the apse of the altar stands out the figure of Konstantin Kabasilas, a Byzantine nobleman who was ordained archbishop of Ohrid around 1250. More damaged is the portrait of St. Clement of Ohrid, who holds a small model of the city of which he is the protector. Also recognizable are representations of St. Cosmo (patron saint of surgeons) and St. Damian (patron saint of pharmacists). Leaving the church and continuing up the same stairs, then turning left, you will quickly reach the church of Saints Constantine and Helen, then the church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos and the Gallery of Icons.

This Orthodox church (Црква Свети Никола/Crkva Sveti Nikola) is the largest in Kruševo. Founded in 1832, it dominates the bazaar district. Destroyed during the 1903 uprising and rebuilt in 1907, it houses a superb iconostasis attributed to Petar Filipovski (1780-1854). It is believed to be the last work of the great cabinetmaker, who was also responsible for the iconostases of the St. John-Bigorski monastery and the Church of St. Saviour in Skopje. Among the icons, the oldest dates back to 1884.

Founded in 1348 by the Serbian knight Radoslav Hlapen, this Orthodox church (Црква Свети Спас/Crkva Sveti Spas) is the parish church of Kučevište. Modified in the ^15th and ^16th centuries with the addition of a porch and a strange high chapel, it retains important ^14th-century frescoes, including a portrait of the families of Radoslav Hlapen and the Serbian king Dušan and a beautiful lamentation scene of the Mother of God. On the outside there are still frescoes painted in 1501.

This triple-naved Orthodox church (Црква Свети Илија) is one of the only buildings in Dojran to survive the wars of the early ^20th century. Built by the Bulgarians in 1848, it was ravaged by fire in 1916, hit by artillery ... Bulgarian. Left without a roof for a century, it was restored and reopened for worship in 2020 with a completely white interior for the moment. A little higher up, the Greek church of Saint George (1911) remains in a state of ruin.

Located in the place called Manastir/Манастир ("monastery"), the ruins of this three-aisled basilica date from the early ^4th century. Local tradition has it that the apostle Paul, during his third journey to Macedonia (between 53 and 58), celebrated his first baptism at this very spot, at the confluence of the Vardar and Bošava rivers. Several buildings were subsequently built, destroyed and rebuilt. In the adjoining medieval necropolis, an icon carved in stone of St. John the Theologian from the ^10th-12th century was discovered in 1952 and is now on display in Skopje.

Dating from 1925, this cathedral (Католичка Катедрална/Katolika Katedralna) is the seat of the Macedonian Greek Catholic Church, most of whose 11,000 faithful, of the Byzantine rite, reside in the Strumica area. Built of brick, it has a richly decorated ceiling and a large carved wooden iconostasis. Like the unfinished Orthodox cathedral in Strumica, it is dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God (Успение на Пресвета Богородица).

This ^14th-century Orthodox church (Црква Свети Димитрија/Crkva Sveti Dimitrija) retains superb original paintings. In the first area, the large portraits of saints have disappeared, but on the south wall remains the face of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki, a martyr of the ^fourth century. In the second zone, there is the cycle of the Passion: the entrance to Jerusalem and its little children is particularly joyful. There is also a beautiful wooden cross carved in the ^nineteenth century.

Surrounded by a pleasant garden, this Orthodox church (Црква Свети Константин и Елена/Crkva Sveti Konstantin i Elena) dates from the late ^14th century and was remodeled in 1477. It consists of a vaulted nave with a small transept, an apse and a side chapel placed to the south. The latter has lost its decoration except for a fragment of the fresco of the forty martyrs of Sebaste: a group of Roman legionaries converted to Christianity and died as martyrs on a frozen lake in present-day Turkey in the year 320. But the rest of the building retains its original frescoes (except in the northern part, due to humidity) and beautiful wooden doors with carved decoration. On the south wall, a large damaged fresco depicts St. Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, founder of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, and his mother, St. Helen, who was canonized for having, it is said, found the relic of the cross of Christ in the Holy Land. Note also a rich scene of the dormition of the Mother of God inspired by that of the church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos as well as the portrait of the donor, the hieromonk Parthenios. The latter is depicted with his family and holds the model of the church that he offered to Christ. Finally, St. Constantine and St. Helen are again depicted on the royal doors of the iconostasis (late ^14th century), which are now kept in the nearby Gallery of Icons.