Plaošnik
Encyclopedia
Ohrid
Ohrid is a city on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid in the Republic of Macedonia. It has about 42,000 inhabitants, making it the seventh largest city in the country. The city is the seat of Ohrid Municipality. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year and has...
, 250 meters below Samuil's Fortress
Samuil's Fortress, Ohrid
Samuil's Fortress is a fortress in the old town of Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia. It was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the rule of Samuil in the middle-ages...
. In the future, the whole complex will have konaks (mansions) as in the time of Saint Clement of Ohrid, together with several surrounding objects.
St. Clement’s Church
The church was built by St.ClementClement of Ohrid
Saint Clement of Ohrid was a medieval Bulgarian saint, scholar, writer and enlightener of the Slavs. He was the most prominent disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius and is often associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, especially their popularisation among...
in 893 year on the foundation of the early Christian basilica, and dedicated to St.Panteleimon
Saint Pantaleon
Saint Pantaleon , counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Healers, was a martyr of Nicomedia in Bithynia during the Diocletian persecution of 303 AD...
. It was here that the Ohrid Literary School
Ohrid Literary School
The Ohrid Literary School was one of the two major medieval Bulgarian cultural centres, along with the Preslav Literary School . The school was established in Ohrid in 886 by Saint Clement of Ohrid on orders of Boris I of Bulgaria simultaneously or shortly after the establishment of the Preslav...
, a center of Slavonic literary and cultural activity where it was educated more than 3,500 disciples. St. Clement was buried in this monastery, in the tomb which was built by his hands.
After the advent of the Ottoman Turks, St. Clement’s Church was converted into a mosque, known as the Imaret Mosque, of which only a small enclosure remains. The mosque was built as an endowment and a memorial by Sinan Chelebi, member of the distinguished Turkish family of the Ohrizade.
Apart from the monastery's many reconstructions during the Ottoman empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, it has recently undergone extensive reconstruction and excavation. Reconstruction started on 8 December 2000 and the physical church was fully reconstructed by 10 August 2002. Most of Saint Clement's relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s were returned to the church.
Baptistery
On Plaošnik has been discovered the baptistery of the five aisle basilica with hooked crosses (swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
s) on the mosaic floors which date from the period between 4th and 6th century. It is assumed that this early Christian basilica at Plaoshnik upon which the Kliment’s monastery was built in the 9th century, was dedicated to St. Paul, the apostle. In Lichnid (present day Ohrid), the apostle Paul preached Christianity in the 1st century A.D.
On 10 October 2007, a deposit of approximately 2,383 Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
s was discovered by archaeologists while excavating the monastery. A prominent archaeologist of the Republic of Macedonian, Pasko Kuzman
Pasko Kuzman
Pasko Kuzman is a Macedonian archaeologist. He has been working on the whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia, but especially in the Skopje area and Lake Ohrid, one of the deepest lakes in Europe...
, stated that the coins are of special significance because they indicate that Ohrid and Venice were commercially
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
linked.