The Architecture and the Wall Painting of the Katholikon of the Treskavec Monastery in the Second Half of the 13th and First Half of the 14th Century

The current architectural form and wall painting of the katholikon of the Treskavec Monastery, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, reflect centuries of structural additions, functional modifications, and subsequent repainting campaigns. These interventions, driven both by the needs of the monastic community and by the intentions of the patrons, span more than eight centuries. Due to the extensive scope of these alterations, the original appearance of the building is today difficult to reconstruct with certainty. This paper seeks to define the character, extent, and narrower chronological framework of the architectural development of the church, while also presenting a focused analysis of the surviving fragments of earlier painting layers, which can preliminarily be dated to the late 13th and the first half of the 14th century. Through iconographic and stylistic-formal analysis, it is possible to establish a relative chronology of the successive painting phases, and thereby to better understand the construction history of the individual architectural components. Moreover, scientific investigations, particularly chemical analyses and the identification of multiple stratigraphic layers, allow for a clearer assessment of the scale and nature of subsequent interventions. At the same time, the iconographic program and stylistic features of the preserved frescoes provide important insights into the political and cultural context in which this decoration emerged. They also make it possible to propose hypotheses regarding the possible patrons and the artistic milieu from which the painters originated, thus contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the artistic production at Treskavec.