7km west of the city of Strumica, in the village of Veljusa, there is a medieval church from the Byzantine period, 'The Most Holy Theotokos the Merciful (Eleusa)', dedicated to the religious holiday of the 'Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple'. The preserved records of the two architraves indicate that the church was built by the monk, later the Strumica bishop Manuil in 1080. The sources testify that 'The Most Holy Theotokos the Merciful (Eleusa)' Monastery Church, located on a limestone rock on the northern slopes of the Elenica Mountain, was built above the former village of Paleokastro in the Strumica theme (Byzantine district). The monastery was mentioned in the 1085 decrees of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. In 1091, or 1094, he personally visited the monastery and wrote about his admiration of the monastery.
The church's architectural structures had four conches and is the only object as such in Macedonia that dates from the 11th century. The interior's dome is a cruciform and it is narrow. Above the all three main parts of the church: the nave with the altar, the narthex and the southern dome of the Saint Savior, are variously dimensioned elevated domes with polygonal tambours, beautified with ceramoplastic decoration and polychromatic resurgence of the facades. The south facade of the church is fresco-painted. In its upper central part, there is a small and abundantly profiled rosette with rack-wheeled coronal, and, below, between the bifora, there is a splendid cross-shaped bipartite ornament. The fresco painting of the church was performed in three different time periods: the altar, the under dome in the naos and the walls, the conches and the chapel in 1085; the porch in 1164, and the naos in the 19th century, with visible local painting influences. The frescos in the church were with iconographic symbolic contents and representations from the Old Testament and the New Testament. Liturgical service of the holy hierarchs with the Hetoimasia (Sacrifice of Christ) and the Mother of God with Jesus Christ sitting on the throne in the altar space.
In the central dome area Jesus Christ Almighty is depicted, while under the walls of the tombs are represented Holy Mother of God, St. John the Baptist, two archangels and four prophets (Hezekiah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and David). In the north end of the monastery is presented the descending of Jesus Christ in hell, and in the south end is presented Candle mass. While in the southern chapel is presented St. Spas and in the dome Jesus Christ Emanuel. In the naos of the church, there is the altar rail made of marble, with designed vegetative and geometric motifs made in bas relief. The floor mosaic contains geometric motifs that follow the basics of the apses (conches) in the central part of the naos, the narthex and the southern chapel. 

Type of Data Point - Publicly Available Information

Monastery Church of the Most Holy Theotokos Eleusa - Public Info

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Inserted: 17-05-2023 07:05:26