Church Ascension of Christ XV –XVI century
The church Holy Ascension is in the vicinity of the Chebren monastery, out of the last, third defensive wall of the medieval city of Chebren. That is a small single-nave church with dimensions from 6.30 х 4.30 metres height out of 2.80 metres, built with chopped stone and mud, and from the outer side, the facades areelaborated with fugue limestone mortar.
The terrain over which the church was built is primarily rocky. It is oriented in the east-west. The church today is covered with red roofing tiles, that are yet preserved around the edgy plates of slate over the cracked walls on the north and south.
Today, the cella of the church is divided from the altar space with a simple wooden iconostasis. The floor of the church is made of stone tiles stuck in the ground. The church is fresco-painted in the interior with: the cella on the north, south and west wall and the altar space. According to the primal data, the roof and the ceiling, as well as the whole church, in a way, suffered during the First World War. The church is a very little elaborated in the past, yet of the preserved painting it could be seen that it dates back from the XV and the beginning of the XVI century.
The impeccably painted decoration in the church Ascension contains topic innovations as the painted scenes with The Vision of Peter Aleksandriski and Jesus Christ big prelate and tsar as well as Mother Mary Parecclesion – praying saint, tsarica which were inserted in the XIII and XIV century, giving a special signature in the last centuries of the paleological Byzantium style.
The uniqueness and the significance of the fresco-painting adds to the fact that the holy warriors and other saints painted in the first zone do not wear their own warrior clothes, yet they wear ceremonial Velmoshki clothes, and the writings are written in Church-Slavonic language.
