A Contribution to the Study of Architecture of the Monastery Church of St
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A contribution to the study of architecture of the monastery church of St. Archangel Michael in Prilep Sasho Korunovski* University “St. Kliment Ohridski” Bitola, Faculty of Tourism in Ohrid UDC 726.5.033(497.7 Prilep) DOI 10.2298/ZOG1135111K Оригиналан научни рад The paper deals with architecture of the one of the most ground plan and structural system. In a global typological signifi cant churches in the Prilep region that was built in context, the church can be added to the group of aisleless the years around 1280 as a foundation of John, the megas (single nave) hall with a dome. In fact, these groups com- chartoularious of the West. The main focus is on the typo- prise a close spacious conception in the essence of which logical concept of the church, and its’ unique combination lies the intention for creation of a rectangular interior in the of a two-domed and two-storeyed structure. In the survey the ground, with a dome dominating in the structural system. particular elements of the church structure are elaborated with a reference to the most striking structures that bear The earliest appearance of churches with such concep- such elements in the architecture of the Byzantine sphere tual layout dates from the eleventh century and is on different of infl uence. locations in the Byzantine world. Initially, the appearance of Key words: church of St. Archangel Michael in Prilep, Byz- several well-preserved churches from Constantinople is to antine architecture, memorial church, two domed church, be recorded, not as much for their role on the appearance two-storeyed church, aisleless hall of the type, as for the relevance of the fact that this type ap- peared in the capital (with all the possible implications) at its The monastery church of St. Archangel in Prilep very beginning and diffusion in the eleventh-twelfth century. 2 (Varosh quarter) is located on a rocky terrain under the king These are two smaller constructions – Toklu Dede Meshidi 3 Marko’s Fortress. The church dedicated to the Archangel and Bogdan Saray. Michael takes the central place in the monastery complex. One of the earliest examples on Greek territory is the 4 It is laid on a rough terrain with big height differences in northern parekklesion at the Kapnikarea church in Athens. northeast-southwest direction. The church walls pattern Here, the aisleless hall with a dome has been laid laterally themselves upon the uneven terrain and they appear in dif- and is dependent on the main church. Still, in the twelfth ferent height, with their foundations always lying on the century already, in many regions in the south Greece, the rocky ground (fi g. 1).1 aisleless hall with a dome can be met as an independent con- 5 The church has a plan of a spacious irregular rectan- struction, even in a big number of well-preserved examples. gle, with 16.78m and 17.91m in length, in the north and * [email protected] south, and 7.06m and 6.17m in width, in the east and west. 1 D. Ćornakov, Konzervatorsko-istrazivački radovi na arhitekturi It is formed as an elongated structure with unique interior i živopisu crkve Sv. Arhanđela kod Prilepa, Zbornik zaštite spomenika without partitions. The altar space was at the eastern end, kulture 18 (1967) 91–98; S. Korunovski, Crkovnata arhitektura vo Make- whereas towards west, two bays marked with the direction donija vo XIII vek, Skopje 2000, 107–133; S. Korunovski, E. Dimitrova, Macedonia. L’arte medievale dal IX al XV secolo, Milan 2006, 92–96. change of the walls were formed in the naos of the church 2 A. Van Millingen, Byzantine Churches in Constantinople. Their (fi g. 2). History and Architecture, London 1912, 206–211; T. F. Mathews, The Byz- The structural system has undergone several altera- antine Churches of Istanbul. A Photographic survey, University Park 1976, tions in the course of the existence of the building. The fres- 376–382. 3 co painting illustrating the model of the church in the hands Millingen, Churches in Constantinople, 280–287; Mathews, Churches of Istanbul, 36–39. of the ktetor John gives us a general view of the structural 4 V. Korać, M. Šuput, Arhitektura vizantijskog sveta, Beograd 1998, system of the church in the thirteenth century. From this, fi g. 215. The parekklesion is considered to have been built together with we come to a conclusion that the church had two domes. the core of the church in the third quarter of the eleventh century; cf. M. Today the superstructure is a result of the latest conservation Chatzidakis, Athen und Umgebung – Attika und Böotien, in: Alte Kirchen und Klöster Greichenlands, ed. E. Melas, Köln 1972, 175–176. and restoration works made upon the church. Thus, the dome 5 Panagia Arakos in Lagudera, the north church of St. John Chrysos- was erected above the western bay in 1987, whereas above tomos on Cyprus, St. Nicholas Kiriakoselia, Chromomonastiri in Rhetim- the eastern part a barrel vault was placed in the east-west non; cf. V. Korać, Jednobrodna crkva sa kupolom u vizantijskoj arhitek- direction. turi XI i XII veka, in: idem, Izmedju Vizantije i Zapada, Beograd 1987, 78–80; Korać, Šuput, Arhitektura, fi g. 247–248; A. Alpanko Novello, G. Judging by the complex architectural structure, the Dēmētrokallēs, Η Βυζαντινή τεχνη στην Ελλάδα, Athens 1995, 103; N. K. church of St. Archangel Michael cannot be brought down to Moutsopoulos, Πίνακες Βυζαντινής αρχιτεκτονικής, Thessaloniki 1962, terminological formulation, which would exactly defi ne its passim. 111 ЗОГРАФ 35 (2011) [111–118] Fig. 1. Prilep, Church of the St. Archangel Michael, an exterior view from the south. The biggest expansion of the type occurs in the twelfth cen- less hall with a dome is the appearance of ground reinforce- tury. With its appearance in the second half of the twelfth ments in the construction with pilasters. With this, the lower century in the regions of Serbia, an important typological constructive frame, which bears the dome, is formed. Such pattern had been established.6 constructive preparation for supporting the domes was left Something similar can be observed in the Bulgarian out in the St. Archangel Michael church. Instead, (excluding architecture in chronological span from the twelfth up to the the two deviations of the walls where their reinforcement fourteenth century, and whose typological interdependence is) the walls of the church are constructed as smooth – fl at can easily be established. One of the fi rst representatives of surfaces. the group is considered to be Church of the Virgin in Stani- Still, how we are going to explain such simplifi cation maka (Asenovgrad).7 In a close relation with the previously in the layout, in contrast to the complex superstructure. This mentioned one is the church of St. Archangels in the Petrit- simplifi cation, to some extent, surpasses the stereotype of 8 zos Monastery (Bachkovо). The execution of the church of the way the dome is placed above the central bay in the other St. Demetrius in Trnovo in a variant of an atrophied cross typologically related churches. Sometimes this procedure of (by joining the pair of pilasters and the western wall together avoiding the pilasters is seen in correlation with the painting and their lightening with lateral semicircular niches) is go- and the wish to form even wall surfaces, suitable for rep- ing to cause the appearance of a group of churches with a lot of similarities in the ground plans. In Macedonia, a church 6 St. Nicholas in Kuršumlija, Ðurđevi Stupovi near Ras, Studenica with similar typological pattern as St. Archangel Michael (Korać, Jednobrodna crkva, 83–85). is the monastery church of the Dormition of the Virgin in 7 N. Chaneva-Dechevska, Arkhitekturni osobenosti na ͡tsŭrkvite ͡ ͡ Treskavec,9 as well as several other churches from the four- sŭs stegnat krŭst od perioda na razvitiia feodalizŭm v Bŭlgariia, in: S. Boi͡ adzhiev, N. Chaneva-Dechevska, Izsledvanii͡ a vŭrkhu arkhitekturata 10 teenth century. na bŭlgarskoto srednovekovie, Sofi a 1982, 140–151; K. Mii͡ atev, Arkhitek- If all the examples enumerated above are mentioned turata v srednovekovna Bŭlgarii͡ a, Sofi a 1965, 171–173. as a heterogeneous group of churches closely related to the 8 Chaneva-Dechevska, Arkhitekturni osobenosti, 151; Mijatev, Ar- khitekturata, 180. church of St. Archangel Michael, and in the conception of 9 The newest investigations have asserted that the monastery church which lies the wish for realisation of a unique, elongated in Treskavec, in its fi rst constructive phase had had the same form as the space above the middle part of which the dome rises, then in core of the present church, which means that, typologically it belonged to relation to the structural system formation we notice consid- the churches with atrophied Greek cross with a dome; this phase globally dates from the twelfth-thirteenth century; cf. E. Kasapova, Arhitekturata erable differences which make the church of St. Archangel na crkvata Uspenie na Bogorodica – Treskavec, Skopje 2009, 81–101. Michael particular. That is the way its superstructure is com- 10 St. Athanasius in Modrište, St. George in the Pološko Monastery, 112 posed. In fact, one of the main characteristics of the aisle- St. Nicholas Šiševski etc. Korunovski S.: A contribution to the study of architecture of the monastery church of St. Archangel Michael in Prilep resentation of the painting programmes.11 If this change of the standard structural system is exclusively in relation with the typologically related solutions, then the appearance of such modifi ed structural systems is something that occurs frequently in the vaulting of the narthex or the U-shaped an- nexes, most frequently at the churches in Constantinople,12 and not only there, though.13 With solution like this, the structural system at the church of St.