Church Saint Athanasius village Zovikj XVII century
The church St. Athanasius in the vicinity of Zovikj is a small single-nave building made of stone and limestone mortar, nowadays covered with red-tiles roof.
According to its architectural and artistic characteristics, the church dates from the so-called post-Byzantium period, meaning the XVII century. Despite the damages that the church suffered, today there are some valuable areas with fresco-painting as a representation in the apsis in the altar space known as Mother Mary with the epithet Platitera – the Omen from XVII century. At the grey and blue background, the epitaph of Mother Mary is written with white Greek letters.
The Iconographic type of Mother Mary the Omen is a variety of the three-handed Mother Mary with the hands in a prayer’s position. This representation is made according to the text of the prophetIsaiah, and according to it, Mother Mary is represented as an embodiment of the church.
This iconographic type of Mother Mary is a significant thematic-chronological pointer of the wider sphere of the Byzantium art, being a witness of the older artistic period.
