Saint Archangel Michael Monastery Štip

The hilltop stronghold of Isar is located on 150 meters high rocky hill over the town of Stip in the eastern part of North Macedonia. The Stip fortification with the monastery complex is called Hisar – Isar and includes foundations of necropolis and settlements from the Bronze and Iron ages, thermal spas from the Roman period and numerous well preserved Medieval cultural-historical monuments. In 2009 the Stip archaelogists discovered a tunnel that in the past connected the Stip fortification with the Bregalnica River and was of the utmost importance for conquest and defense of the Isar stronghold. This proved the most narrating legend on the Ottoman occupation of the town through the secret tunnel beneath the Isar fortification on which in the 17th century wrote the Turkish travel writer Evliya Çelebi. This tunnel was used for secret water supply of inhabitants who lived in the Isar fortress.

Stip was the largest cultural and trade center in eastern Macedonia since the ancient times. At the end of the rule of the Serbian king Stefan Decanski /Stephen of Decani Monastery/, and at the beginning of the reign of his son Dusan, there was the local lord Hrelja who governed the area of Stip. The governor Hrelja Ohmuchevich had built the cross-shape Church dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael in the western part of hinterland of Stip. He gifted the shrine and the belonging estate to the Hilandar Monastery, that was later in 1332 confirmed by the tsar Dusan. The historian of that period testify : “This church of the ruler and military leader Hrelja still stands in Stip, on the Hisar hill, and is named the Fitija.

Next to this church there are other churches of Old Serbia, beneath the Hisar hill – the Church of Saint Prophet Elias – the endowment of Konstantin Dejanovic from 1381, the Church of Saint Savior – the endowment of duke Demetrios, erected in 1369, and the Church of Saint John the Baptist – the endowment of ruler Jovan Probistipovic, built in 1350… ”

The Church of Saint Archangel Michael is located under the Isar Fortress in present town of Stip, built on the foundations of the antique Astibo and Byzantine Stypion, on a dominant hill between the Bregalnica and Otinja Rivers in East Macedonia. This shrine is the first one among the four Medieval churches erected beneath the fortification in a row making a cross. It is a small, one nave medieval church built in the first half of the 14th century with a dome over the cross-shaped basis and with facades in layers of bricks and stone. During the restorations works the paraklis dating from the 14th century was destroyed. The Church of Saint archangel Michael in Stip was erected by the the duke of Tsar Dušan – Protosevastes Hrelya Ohmuchevich, who is known in the Serbian epics as the „Relja krilatica” and who ruled the areas towards the border with Bulgaria and Byzantine Empire at that time. The church painting is preserved only in fragments and poorly depict the images of Tzar Constantine and of his mother, Holy Empress Helen, as well as the image of a holy warrior. The outside walls of the Saint Archangel Michael church are beautifully decorated with blocks of processed stone with the only entrance positioned on the western side of the complex. There is a bell tower next to the church.

After the Ottoman conquest, Ali-Bey turned the Church of Saint Archangel Michael into the Fitija mosque when frescoes were destroyed. The Turkish explorer and travel-writer Evliya Çelebi records that the Fitija Mosque was the main mosque of Stip built on the place of the former church that existed prior to the Ottoman conquest.

The Church of the Saint Savior in Stip is set on the left bank of the Otinja River, on the road leading to the Novo selo village. The Saint Savior church in Stip is located on the flat rock and attracts attention of the visitors’ eyes by its tiny dimensions and the cozy and secluded appearance with the surrounding necropolis and numerous tombs.