The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos or Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( mk, Црква „Рождество на Пресвета Богородица“) is an

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

church in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Sk ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

. According to the legends, there was a medieval church. During the early 19th century the locals in Skopje decided to build there a new church. The project had become possible because the Ottoman building law, which had once limited the construction or renovation of Christian churches, had been changed. The construction works began in 1809 under the direction of the builder and painter Damjan Jankulov. He died during the construction period and the church was completed by his sons, led by Andreja Damjanov. On May 1, 1835, it was consecrated to the birth of the Blessed Virgin. The church is a three-aisled stone basilica with a western extension. The iconostasis is decorated with marble and wood carvings. One year after the completion of the church, a convent school teaching in Bulgarian was built in its courtyard. Around 1850, the school was converted according to the

Lancasterian system The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...

and 1895 it was transformed into Bulgarian Pedagogical School of Skopje. According to a Firman issued by the Sultan Abdülaziz on February 28, 1870, after a plebiscite of the Slavic population of Skopje, the first bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Skopje was appointed in 1874. The Diocese eventually became part of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Church of Our Lady became its local seat. After the incorporation of Skopje in 1912 in Serbia, the church was subordinated to the Serbian Orthodox Church. During Bulgarian occupation of the area in the First and in the Second World War the church was subordinated again to the BOC. The church was affected by a fire during an Allied bombing raid on April 6, 1944. According to other report, the incident was triggered by accident by the cook of a German military unit stationed in the service premises of the church. Part of the church plate was brought out of the burning building and was subsequently taken over by the Bulgarian church authorities. During the bombing, a number of properties of the BOC's Skopje diocese were seriously damaged. According to the

controversial Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...

Macedonian historiography Historiography in North Macedonia is the methodology of historical studies used by the historians of that country. It has been developed since 1945 when SR Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia. According to the German historian it has preserve ...

cal data the church was burned up deliberately by the Bulgarian "fascistic occupiers". In 2018, a report and a photograph of preserved slab appeared in Macedonian media. On the slab was an inscription: "The Main Door of the Bulgarian People's Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, July 20, 1879." The report has revealed that the slab was mounted on the church itself, but later was removed and kept for years in a secret place, as not to be destroyed by the Yugoslav authorities.

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* Јов. Хаџи Василевић, Црква Света Богородица у Скопљу (1835-1935), “Споменица православног храма Свете Богородице у Скопљу 1835-1935 год.”, Скопље 1935. * Васил Кънчов
Град Скопие. Бележки за неговото настояще и минало
(Избрани произведения, т. II, Издателство Наука и изкуство, София 1970)

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See also