Kavadarci, Drenovo, The Church of the Virgin Mary

The church dedicated to Virgin is located near the village of Drenovo (Дреново), about 13 kilometers west of Kavadarci.

Architecture:
The Church of the Virgin in Drenova has not been preserved in its authentic form. The biggest renovation of the church took place at the beginning of the 19th century, when the northern and western walls of the church were rebuilt, and the southern wall was lowered. At the same time, a wooden gallery was built on the west side. Despite these changes to the original construction, it is possible to reconstruct the original architectural structure of the building. From the point of view of architectural typology, the church is a very interesting achievement. It is a special combination of a basilica and a church of the inscribed cross. The base of the inscribed cross has a nave, with a dome resting on massive pilasters, which are connected on the south, north and west sides by two-arched passages supported by columns. On the eastern side, there is a spacious altar space, the apse of which is semicircular on the inside, and five-sided on the outside. The space below the dome is surrounded on three sides by aisled spaces which ends on the eastern part with pastophoria. The side aisles of the ambulatory had galleries. The central aisle of the western part of the ambulatory, that is, the narthex, was also surmounted by a dome, or blind calotte.

Sculptural Decoration:
A certain part of the original sculptural decoration has been preserved in the Church of the Virgin in Drenova. The first group within the architectural sculpture of the church consists of spolia, probably taken from the nearby early Christian basilica in Mutičanski dol. The second group includes the sculptures that are still in the church today (a fragment built into the north jamb of the west door, the mullion of an altar bifora, the capitals of the columns, etc.), as well as the fragments that are kept in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia. The fragments are decorated with floral motifs, crosses and fantastic animals (griffins, lions). On the basis of stylistic peculiarities, i.e. the closest analogies (sculpture of the church of St. Sophia in Ohrid, fragments from the church of St. Stephen in Konča), the architectural sculpture from Drenovo is mostly dated to the 11th century. Moreover, it was assumed that the sculpture from Drenovo and Konče were made by the same workshop.

Dating:
On the basis of the presented architectural features of the church, i.e. the stylistic features of the sculptural decoration, the prevailing opinion in the scientific literature is that it is a monument of Byzantine architecture of the 11th century. In recent times, however, a different opinion has been expressed about the time of the creation of the church in Drenovo. Contrary to the views of her predecessors, Marica Šuput believes that the church was built in the fifth or sixth decade of the 14th century. She claims, that it could be the endowment of a Serbian nobleman from the time of king/emperor Dušan. In doing so, the author has in mind first of all the architectural features of the building, to which she finds the closest analogies in the church of the Virgin Olimpiotissa in Elassona, built in the second quarter of the mentioned century. Apart from that, Šuput believes that certain examples of architectural plastic due to their stylistic peculiarities belong to the art of the 14th century, which, although without explanation, was also considered by some earlier researchers (G. Petrov). Furthermore, Marica Šuput also takes into account the content of the very damaged fresco-inscription above the southern entrance to the building, in which, according to the reading of Radoslav Grujić, published by Vojislav Radovanović, is mentioned painter Dimitar who decorated the church in the time of emperor Stefan. Finally, the author draws attention to the fact that in 1378 Konstantin Dragaš donated a church to the monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos.