Church Saint Nicholas village Gradeshnica XIX century
The church Saint Nicholas in village Gradeshnica according to its architecture and fresco painting is a typical sample of the nineteenth century, rebirth churches. It is built in the center of the village in 1862, and 20 years later it was fresco-painted. It is built of stone with dimensions 18.60 х 12 metres, and height 7.87 metres.
The building of the church is a type of a three-nave pseudo-basilica divided with two colonnades from the pillars and the floored gallery.
There are entrances built on the western and southern side, on the southern side there are visible fence walls made of stone, where the main entrance gate is positioned. Over the door, on the south in the indented semicircular alcove there is a fresco-painting of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and above the door on the west, there is a fresco-painting of St. Athanasius, who was probably the patron saint of the older church.
Towards the eastern side, there is an iconostasis, high and wooden, ornamented with frescos, and the interior of the church makes the rest of the church furniture (the ruling chair, the pulpit, the seats) in the so called local baroque style. It is supposed that the frescos are the work of art by the fellowship of the brothers Josif and Jakov Radevi from Lazaropole. The signatures are written in Slavonic language.
Due to the suffering damages during the First World War, there were some repairs made over the architecture in 1923, and the wall painting was renewed in 1927, at the upper zones of the sidenave and central nave. These damaged areas were again repainted by Kosta Nikolikj with his sons Jakim and Teodosija, whose origins are from Lazaropole, during the time of the Metropolitan bishop Josif from Bitola.
On the north wall from the cella, the greater part of the wall surface is painted by the composition of Jesus Christ, the Righteous Judge. The composition on the north wall is of great importance which represented the primal Slavonic teachers, the Thessalonica brothers Ss. Cyril and Methodius. Of great significance is also the representation in full in the first zone of the southern wall on the cella of St. George Dimovski who was a local martyr.
