Plaosnik is the most layered site in Ohrid – one plateau holding cultural layers from prehistory, antiquity and the Middle Ages at once. The first excavations, from October 1942 to May 1943, dug inside the remains of the Sultan Mehmed mosque and uncovered the original church of St Clement along with St Clement's own tomb; Professor Dimce Koco published the results in 1948.
The find that stops people is the baptistery of the fifth- to sixth-century polyconchal Early Christian basilica: a rectangular room with a circular piscina and steps down into it, framed by an exceptionally well preserved mosaic floor of stylised vines and grapes, lambs, lions, peacocks, cocks and marsh birds. The present Church of Sts Clement and Panteleimon was rebuilt on the old foundations and consecrated on 11 August 2002, when St Clement's relics were carried here in procession from Holy Virgin Peribleptos. The foundations of the demolished Islamic building were deliberately left visible as testimony to that period.
Local tip: It is about a ten-minute walk uphill from the old city, on the same headland as the Kaneo church and the fortress – do all three as one loop rather than three separate climbs.
Good to know
- City: Ohrid
- Website: official site