Slovene (Dec 2016)
The Archaeological Evidence of St. Clement of Ohrid’s Activities in the Ohrid Region
Abstract
Among the activities of St. Clement of Ohrid was the construction of the church and monastery in Ohrid, which was carried out at the end of the 9th century at the location where some Byzantine basilicas had stood previously. As findings of archaeological excavations have shown, St. Clement first built a small triconch church at the location of the ruined basilica. This triconchos was later expanded by the addition of a capacious “pronaos” in inscribed-cross form, where St. Clement was interred. This “pronaos” was characterized by entrances on the north and south sides that were identical to those of the inscribed-cross church that existed near the village of Velcë along the Šušica River (in southern Albania) at the turn of the 9th‒10th century. During the tenure of Archbishop Dmitrios Chomatianos (1216–1236), the “pronaos” was replaced with a new church into which the relics of St. Clement were placed. In the Ottoman period, the Church and Monastery of St. Clement were disassembled to build a mosque. At the very beginning of the 10th century, the triconchal church in the Monastery of St. Clement served as a model for the church in the Monastery of St. Naum, in the southern part of the Ohrid lake area. The groundwork(s) of a further church in a triconchal shape, whose construction can be traced back to the time of St. Clement, has also been discovered at Gorica, near Ohrid. Ruins of yet another triconchal church which also belongs to the period under review can be found near the village of Zlesti, in the Dolna Debarca region, not far from Ohrid. In the vicinity of the village of Izdeglavje, in the Gorna Debarca region, there is also a church whose establishment is related to the activity of St. Clement of Ohrid as well.
