The Monastery of Lešok is a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, near the village of Lešok in

Tearce Municipality Tearce ( ; Albanian:Tearcë) is a municipality in northwestern North Macedonia. '' Tearce'' is also the name of the village where the municipal seat is found. Tearce Municipality is part of the Polog Statistical Region. Geography The municipal ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. It is located close to the border with

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. Lying at 638 metres above sea level it is located on the southeastern side of the mountain Šar Planina. In its complex are the churches of St. Athanasius of Alexandria and the Holy Mother of God Church. The Church of the Holy Virgin, built in 1326, is an excellent example of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

style and architectural tradition. The church has three layers of

frescoes Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

. The 1st and bottom layer is from the first time of construction, the second and middle one was added sometime in the 17th century, and the third and top layer was added in 1879. Several marble columns from the original church can still be seen in the Tetovo museum. The monastery dormitories were redecorated from around 1818 and the library was founded and Lešok became a literature and educational center. At the end of the 19th century, a dispute arose between the Bulgarian and Serbian churches regarding the ownership of the monastery, with both institutions asserting their claims to it. According to the monks residing there in 1901, the abbot Ezekiel—who identified as a "pure-blooded Macedonian" and opposed the Serbian and Bulgarian agitators—was ultimately murdered in 1898 by "foreign agitators". The church of St. Athanasius was built in 1924 next to the Church of the Holy Mother of God. In the yard of the Monastery of Lešok is the tomb of the Bulgarian cleric, writer and enlightener

Kiril Peychinovich Kiril Peychinovich or Kiril Pejčinović (, , , Church Slavonic: Күриллъ Пейчиновићь; – 7 March 1845) was a Bulgarian cleric, writer and enlightener, one of the first supporters of the use of modern Bulgarian (as oppos ...

, who was born in 1770. In his honor, this monastery hosts an International Meeting of Literary Translators. Tetovo is also a host to the Festival of the Macedonian Choirs. On August 13, during the 2001 Macedonian Insurgency, shortly after the

Ohrid Agreement The Ohrid Framework Agreement (, ) was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) and representatives of the Albanian minority on 13 August 2001. The agreement was signed by the country's four poli ...

, the monastery was destroyed by an explosive device. Both sides of the conflict denied responsibility. The corpse of a donkey painted with the letters UÇK (The Albanian abbreviation for National Liberation Army) were found next to the rubble though NLA forces within the town had claimed not to have been responsible nor to have been responsible and instead blamed local Macedonians from the town of Rate. Today the monastery dormitories have been restored and are used to accommodate summer tourists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesok Monastery Eastern Orthodox monasteries in North Macedonia Macedonian Orthodox monasteries Medieval Serbian Orthodox monasteries Šar Mountains 1326 establishments in Europe Tearce Municipality