Digging up a mystery
The researches and conservations were synchronized and done at the same time for three years. Dragan Dakich and Petre Kamchevski from the Kavadarci Museum were also included in the project. A complete conservation on the architecture; frescos; carvings; icons was done and copies of the two folding doors were also made. The main gate of the monastery, the bakery, the fountain and the supporting walls were also refurbished, and the yard was finally trimmed by planting grass and trees, one of which was a very rare indigenous tree called “naked man”. It is still in the monastery’s yard.
The first information concerning the history of the “Saint George” monastery come from the two charters issued in 1340 and 1378. The first one was issued by Tsar Stefan Dushan who ruled this part of the Balkan Peninsula from 1331 to 1355. The charter was about his decision to give the Polog monastery along with the villages of Poloshko, Dragozhel and Koshani as a gift to the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos. The second charter was issued by the Dejanovich brothers – Jovan Dragash, the despot and his brother Konstantin – by which they gave the monastery and all of its property along with the river Crna and the nearby villages as a gift to the Russian “Saint Pantelemon” monastery on Mount Athos. Judging by the content of the 1340 charter, it can be concluded that the body of Dragushin, cousin of Tsar Dushan, was laid to rest in the church located in the village of Poloshko. However, this charter was interpreted in different ways by different researchers and interpreters. There were great differences concerning Dragushin, who he was and how he was related to the king and Maria the despot. There was no proof of that until the day the mysterious inscribed frescos were found underneath the newer frescos.
That day, the researchers of the Polog monastery “Saint George” suddenly had two inscriptions in front of them, written on the eastern wall in the narthex over the church entrance. The first one dates back to 1609 when during the ruling of the abbot Sava the narthex was painted, and the second one dates back to 1881 when a third restoration on the frescos was done. Multiple abbots were mentioned in different travelers’ entries, as well as that there were two buildings in the monastery, one of which was old, two-tiered, with four rooms on each floor as well as a big terrace. A 40-cattle stable, a kitchen, a cellar with two big barrels, two barns outside the monastery yard were also mentioned, as well as 600 uvri of mountain and 600 uvri of new forests near the villages of Dobrotino, Pravednik, Sheshkovo, Resava, Begnishte, Kumanichevo, Klinovo and Galishta. For example, prior to 1893 the monastery had about 20 sheep, 120 goats, 10 oxen, 15 bullocks, 3 cows, 4 horses and one foal.
It was also mentioned that at one point in early 18th century the monastery was completely desolated, even though it had been one of the best and most famous scripture centers in Macedonia during the 15th and 16th century. Anyway, during the first phase, the second layer of frescos from 1609 located on the façade was removed, so the figures of Jovan Dragushin and his wife Ana showed up on the northern side, with a monumental figure of Tsar Stefan Dushan located above them. Dragushin was dressed in a noble gown, decorated with pearls and golden, two-headed eagles; red and blue precious stones and had a massive ring on his right hand. There was an inscription located at the height of Dragushin and Ana’s heads that provided relevant data for further research about the church and new information about Dragushin himself. Namely, in the ten-row-long inscription there is information that “Jovan Dragushin is the son of Aldimir, the despot, and the true brother of the sublime king and our lord”.
It can also be concluded that it was after 1334 that Jovan Dragushin picked this particular place to be his grave church when Stefan Dushan entered deeper into Macedonian territory ruled by Byzantium, which gave Dragushin properties in the southern parts of Dushan’s country back then. The 1340 charter by Tsar Dushan was issued at the request of Maria the despot, Dragushin’s mother and Dushan’s aunt, which Dushan called his mother. These sources discovered in the Polog monastery reveal that the Tsar’s respected cousin was left without a title, and the high treatment he got in Dushan’s court was due to his origin and the fact that he was closely related to the country’s ruler. The first information from the inscription which says that Dragushin is Aldimir’s son solves the issue that science had about his and his mother Maria’s relation to Stefan Dushan. That information says that Aldimir and Tsar Dushan’s father, Stefan Dechanski were brothers-in-law, i.e. were married to the daughters of the Bulgarian Tsar Smilec who ruled from 1292 to 1298. The wife of Tsar Smilec was Greek. She was daughter of the aristocrat Constantine Paleologos, brother of the byzantine Tsar Michael VIII Paleologos.
According to historical sources, Jovan Dragushin whose grave was found in the Polog monastery, and Stefan Dushan, two first cousins, children of two sisters, first met each other in 1314 when Stefan Dechanski, punished by his father and blinded was sent to imprisonment in Constantinople. Dragushin’s wife Ana was painted next to him and it is written that she was his wife and a daughter of a despot. It was an interesting discovery that over the portraits of Draugushin and Ana there was a monumental figure of Tsar Stefan Dushan together with an angel that gives him a sword. Dushan’s portrait in the Polog monastery is considered one of the most representative images of this ruler, ever. The figure takes up a great surface on the wall and is very close by size to his portrait painted in the monastery in Lesnovo” – says Dr. Kjornakov.
The grave of Tsar Dushan’s brother?
By removing the 1609 frescos, some meaningful portraits of historical people were found. These include the portraits of Maria, Dragushin’s mother, the image of Saint George, the patron of the church and the son of Dragushin and Ana. The founder, Maria, was painted in actual size holding a model of the church in her hands. There is an interesting inscription next to her aureole which gives interesting historical data, such as the one of her baptized name, Marina and her monastic, Maria, as well as the one that she became a nun after the death of her son.
“Judging by the charter from Stefan Dushan, which says that Dragushin chose to be buried in the Polog monastery while he was still alive, we can assume that he began building the mausoleum-church himself, but died during the process. His mother finished it, and then painted the church circa 1343. One of our team’s priorities was the discovery of Dragushin’s grave. The 1340 charter indicated to its existence and that Draushin himself chose the church in Poloshko, dedicated to Saint George.
Indeed, it happened few months after the archaeological researches began. The upper surface of the crypt was located half a meter under the church’s floor. It was covered by big stone plates. The eastern wall of the crypt was built at the same time and the same way as the other walls of the church, using the same material. That confirmed that Dragushin himself designated and built the crypt in the church. During the opening of the crypt we found that the covering plates had been moved in order to make an opening. That leads to the fact the crypt had been previously opened. Still, there was a human skeleton inside, laid on the back with small remains of silver thread around it. Forty years after Dragushin’s death the church of Saint George along with the villages of Poloshko, Dragozhel, Koshani and a bigger part of the Tikvesh region already belonged to Constantine, son of the aristocrat and despot Dejan. In 1378 his brother Jovan Dragash and he gifted the Polog monastery to the “Saint Pantelemon” monastery on Mount Athos.
In addition to the new findings about the mausoleum-church there were also a couple of covering tiles found which had a name and a record embossed before baking. Part of the inscription on the tile says that “this tile was made in the month of August in the molds of Dragushin”. The discovery of this information is another confirmation about Dragushin’s activity over the building of the church in Poloshko as his mausoleum. Therefore, it can be said that the church of Saint George at the Polog monastery is the only object in Macedonia built as a mausoleum-church, where Dragushin was buried, according to his will and at a previously designated place. The church was built in 1340 by his mother, Maria the despot, which she later gifted to Hilandar, according to Tsar Dushan’s charter” – says Dr. Kjornakov.
Blaze Minevski
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