Ss. Cyril and Mehtodius


The Orthodox Congregational Church “St Cyril and Methodius” is located in the old part of the Town of Strumica and is one of the features of Orthodoxy in this area. The laying of the foundation of this church started upon a Sultan’s firman in the time of the bishop Pajsie, and the construction was completed in 1912.

Certain decorative ad constructional similarities with the architecture of the Russian Athonite Monastery “St Panteleimon” and the Church “St George” can be recognized in its architectural and stylistic shaping. Here lie the relics of St Basil the Great and St Teophane Nacertani.

The church has two altars, whereas both churches (upper and lower) have iconostases in carving made by the master of Debar School Nestor Aleksiev in 1935. In the lower church is the Exarch Metropolit Gerasim’s tomb, the initiator of the construction of the upper church, which is dedicated to St Cyril and Methodius.

The church has a two-cross base with a narthex and a bell tower on the west side, whereas on the east side there is a developed alter space.

The iconography was made by the iconographers Grigorij Pecanov from Strumica, Gavril Atanasov from Berovo and D. A. Papradiški, but there were other anonymous authors as well.