MONASTERY OF SAINT ANDREA
A 17km long asphalt road from the capital, leads to the monastery St. Andrew (St. Andrea), situated on the shores of the artificial lake Treska in the Matka canyon. The monastery is found at the approach to the picturesque gorge of the river Treska. There is a restaurant in its immediate neighborhood.
The church was erected in 1389 by Andreja, the second son of the king Volkashin. The interior of the church was frescoed by the metropolitan Jovan and the deacon Grigorije. Althoughtthe deacon Grigorije is a new name, the metropolian Jovan is known as the painter of the frescoes in the monastery in Prilep. The frescoes are stylistically outstanding but are the more so since, iconographically, the differ from the rest of Macedonian medieval monuments. The painters here freed themselves from the Byzantine iconographical tradition and instead of painting the figures of the holy hermits, the miracles of Jesus and scenes from the life of the Virgin they present the full-lenght figures of the Holy Warriors whose life-like faces have tremendous force and apper wordly. The artists, in the compositions, move towards solving the problem of perspective and figure arrangement within a confine space.
