New Collection: Church of the Mother of God of Zahumlje, Zaum, Macedonia

Zaum, or the Church of the Mother of God of Zahumlje, is located on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid, at the foot of Mount Galičica. Owing to a fresco inscription in Greek on the western wall of the church, we learn that the church was built by Kesar Grgur, and painted in 1361 by Grigorije, bishop of Devol, "during the reign of Stefan Uroš". The question of the identity of the founder Grgur has long been a subject of controversy in historiography, but today the generally accepted view is that he was Kesar Grgur Golubić, a high dignitary at the court of Emperor Dušan. Although this nobleman is mentioned in several written sources of that time (letters of Pope Clement VI, the inventory of the crypt of the Church of St. Nicholas in Bari where he is mentioned as a donor, the founding charter of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren...), his origin and other details of his life still remain in the realm of hypotheses, such as the assumption that he came from the Hum area. From there, he could have brought the cult of the icon of the Mother of God of Zahumlje to which the church is dedicated.

BLAGO visited the church in June of 2025.