Sveti Kiril i Metodij (St Cyril and Meothodius)

In Macedonia, the process of establishing church-school communities first began by the founding of church, and later of educational-church, communities. The Macedonian middle class showed a special interest in church and social matters and took an active part in their activities.In addition to the basic objectives of the Macedonian church and school communities - to preserve the Macedonian element and the basic traits of the Macedonian national Ohrid Archbishopric, their activities also extended to repairing dilapidated churches in Macedonian towns, and building new, large, astounding churches.The Macedonian middle class -the esnaf - was well organized, and prominent citizens together with the common people built wonderful new spacious churches.

One of the best representing sample, which came to being as a result of this civil movement is the Church of Sveti Kiril i Metodij (St. Cyril and Methodius) in Tetovo. St. Kiril and Metodij church is placed on the part of the old town of Tetovo, it is one of the most beautiful orthodox temple not only in Pollog valley, also within Macedonia. Great activities were also developed by the Macedonian church-school community in Tetovo, at the church St. Kiril and Metodij.It has been built on a new place in the recent history, more precisely in the midst of the Ilinden uprising and Krusevo's Republic of 1903, what gives additional meaning to the sanctuary. The initiative came from Prota Miahil, senior priest known as proctor of the orthodox Christians against the ottoman authorities. In that time as an special envoy to the Sultan Murat Amid in Istambul he managed to obtain a permission for construction of the church. Th e permission was obtained on 21 November 1902.

At the beginning the construction workers and the master builders were facing problems with the layout and the humidity of the soil , but later the water was drained away from the According to the legend the church goes beneath as much as it goes above the ground, the basement has been filled with liquid lead in order to ensure that any land slide will not damage the sanctuary.  During the construction stones were carried manually from the fortress of Tetovo. The chief builder was certain persons with Macedonian origin from today’s Thessalonica. The main sources of finance were self contribution of the local population. The construction was completed in 1918 while the church was sanctified on 12 July 1925 on the Saint Peter day by the patriarch Varnava. This is a three-nave basilica with a single dome and a cruciform basis. The fresco painting on the walls was done by painter Danilo Nestorovski in 1924. The same year was fatal for the benefactor of the church the Prota Mihail who was buried in the church yard , his tomb is respected very much by the local population to these days. Since 1924 quite some few interventions were made, some of them are significant for the today’s look of the church, such as:

• Construction of the fountain in the year of the church in 1931
• Construction of parish house in 1938 in the yard of the church
• Repair works were completed by 1974 following the damages caused by the 1963 earthquake
• In 1989, initiated by the church administration a complete renovation of the church building was finalized. In the same year a church bell tower was constructed.
• The church icons and frescos were renovated 1991. In the same year the church roof was reconstructed