Abbeys monasteries and convents Ljubaništa

This Orthodox monastery (Манастир Свети Наум/Manastir Sveti Naum) was founded between 893 and 905 by Saint Naum of Ohrid and Bulgarian King Boris ^I (reign 852-889). It is dedicated to the archangels Gabriel and Michael. Nestled on a cliff on the shores of Lake Ohrid, 600 m from the Albanian border, this 30-hectare complex enjoys a magnificent setting. Surrounded by greenery and the springs that feed the lake, the monastery is famous for its free-roaming peacocks and the excellent raki sold by the monks. Having belonged to Albania from 1912 to 1925, it is one of the holiest and most visited places in Northern Macedonia. It was extensively remodeled and enlarged up to the ^16th century, and part of the buildings were rebuilt after a fire in 1875. Today, there is a large ^19th-century circular building housing the monks' cells and the Sveti Naum hotel, several churches and chapels, a harbor for tour boats, souvenir stores, sacred springs and a small lake. At the center of the complex, the Church of the Archangels-Gabriel-and-Michel (Црква Архангели Гаврил и Михаил) forms the catholicon (main church) of the monastery. The ^10th-century building followed a trefoil plan modeled on the church of the monastery of St. Panteleimon in Ohrid. Only the black and white marble floor has been preserved. The original church was destroyed before the ^13th century, then rebuilt in Byzantine style in the ^16th century. The porch pillars bear inscriptions in Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets from the ^10th-12th centuries, among the oldest epigraphic traces in Slavic literature.

Tomb of Saint Naum. All interior walls are painted. But only a few fragments from the ^16th-17th centuries remain. Most of the frescoes were executed between 1800 and 1806 in a "medieval" style by an Albanian artist from Korça called Terpo. On the right, after the narthex, the chapel dates from 1799. Topped by a large dome, it houses the tomb of Saint Naum, where the saint was buried in 910. The tomb is the object of deep devotion, including within the local Muslim community. Tradition has it that people bend over the tomb to hear the saint's heart beating and make a vow. The chapel is decorated with frescoes depicting miracles attributed to Naum, some of which are not lacking in piquancy: a monk caught trying to steal the saint's relics, the healing of a mentally ill man, a domesticated bear, a horse thief caught at the monastery gates and a mysterious bucket that left its imprint on the rocks.

Cupolas and iconostasis. The dome of the narthex features portraits of the archangels and Boris ^I, who financed the construction of the monastery after abdicating to become a monk in 889. The dome of the nave is decorated with a superb Mother of God, surrounded by representations of the evangelists Cyril and Methodius and some of their disciples, such as Clement and Naum. The carved wooden iconostasis dates from 1711. It is the oldest in the country. Its icons were painted in the same period by Konstandin Shpataraku, of the Albanian school of Berat and father of the Terpo painter who did the frescoes. Among the icons in the iconostasis, note the Mother of God Eleousa ("of tenderness"), the portraits of the archangels and that of Saint Marina holding the devil by the horns.