Church Of St. Petar And Pavle
History
In the immediate vicinity of Tutin, near the cemetery in the village of Lukavica, there is a church dedicated to the two first apostles. It was built in the 16th century as a simple ground floor building. The church was previously known as the church of the Holy Emperor Constantine and Empress Helen. Conservation and restoration works on architecture and frescoes were carried out in the period 1967–1971.
Cultural site details
Church of St. Peter and Paul is located 1.5 km from the center of Tutin, so the people of this city call it the old folk church. The church is a cultural monument of great importance. The city's Orthodox cemetery is also located in the churchyard. The church is simple, with plastered facades and a steep gabled roof covered with shingles, and it reveals its purpose only with a semicircular apse on the outside. The unique space of the nave is covered with a semi-circular vault, and the narthex as a separate section was added later to the temple. Inside this inconspicuous building hides an extraordinary painted ensemble, created in 1647/1648. Two painters presented - with many individual characters - the cycle of the Great Feasts, placing each scene in a separate, bordered field, while scenes from the cycle of Christ's Passion were performed continuously, in the form of friezes. That the painters came from somewhere in the northern regions of Greece, reveal typical iconographic details that are not present in domestic painting, such as the poor and Daniel's vision in the scene of the Last Judgment, or the insertion of the Virgin in the composition of the Descent of St. Spirit of the Apostles. Among the few preserved units from the middle of the 17th century, Tutin's frescoes occupy a special place both because of their undoubted artistic qualities and because of their meaningful ideological message.