Archaeology handicrafts and science and technology sites to visit Ohrid

Overlooking the old city to the west, this hill (Плаошник) is home to excavation sites and much maligned recent construction. The place is worth a visit for the mosaics of its early Christian basilica and for the plunging views over the lake. The hill has been inhabited since the Iron Age. At the beginning of our era, it was romanized: it was a residential area with houses, baths and temples. From the^5th century onwards, the place became a religious site with two basilicas and the seat of the first bishops of Lychnidos. In the ^9th century, St. Clement of Ohrid made Plaošnik the main center of Slavic evangelization with the construction of the prestigious Ohrid Literary School, a monastery and the church of St. Panteleimon. In the ^15th century, the latter was transformed into a mosque and provided with an imaret (hospice). A Muslim neighborhood was born, taking the name of Imaret. But since 2000, a vast real estate project tinged with nationalism has been launched: almost all traces of Islamic presence has been erased (only an Ottoman mausoleum remains). In its place were erected the modern buildings of the University of the Apostle Paul and the new church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon. These constructions have distorted the hill. They have earned Ohrid strong criticism from UNESCO, which is threatening to remove the city from the World Heritage List. In the western part, behind the bar of buildings of the university, a way passes in the forest to join the church Saint-Jean of Kaneo.

This archaeological site contains the remains of an early Christian basilica of the ^4th or^5th century (Ранохристијанска Базилика Манчевци/Ranohristijanska Bazilika Mančevci). Discovered in 2007, it preserves the layout of two naves, a large mosaic on the floor and fragments of other mosaics bearing the names of the donors (John and Thomas), a portion of brick wall, three upright columns supporting two reconstructed vaults, as well as various decorative elements in marble.

This early Christian basilica (Ранохристијанска Базилика Плаошник/Ranohristijanska Bazilika Plaošnik) is home to superb mosaics. It is the most important remnant of late antiquity unearthed on the hill of Plaošnik. The discovery was made as part of the large real estate project launched here in 2000. A large tubular structure houses the foundations of what was the seat of the bishopric of Lychnidos, probably founded in the^fifth century. The modern roofing is supposed to reproduce what the elaborate roof of this basilica with its tetraconical (four-leaf) plan looked like. Thanks to an elevated walkway that goes around the foundations, one can admire the mosaics on the floor with floral, animal, human and geometric motifs, including many "swastikas": swastikas were very common decorative elements in Greek, Roman and Byzantine decorations. The most remarkable piece is the baptistery decorated with a mosaic of peacocks drinking water from a sacred inexhaustible source. It is an illustration of the theme of baptism that purifies and nourishes the Christian throughout his life. The commissioners of all these works remain as anonymous as the artists who executed them. Only an inscription in Greek on the north side of the church evokes their memory: "This was done by those whose names are known to God Nearby are the ruins of a "pagan" temple and various buildings from the Roman and Byzantine periods.