Abstract

Religious practices taking place in rock-cut churches were an important part of Byzantine culture. The rich iconographic material found in the chapels of Ohrid and Prespa illuminates numerous aspects of medieval art and society. Regardless of their geographical isolation, these churches had an important role in the religious practices of different communities: monks, members of the nobility, ecclesiastic dignitaries and laypeople. The décor of these monuments attests to the stylistic changes, the import end the export of iconographic elements and the mobility of artists between the major centers of the Byzantine Empire (Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Kastoria, Ohrid, Pelagonia) and between the Greek and Slavonic worlds.