Ancient Civilisations have left numerous remains on the territory of Macedonia. The important archeological site at Trebenishte, not far from Ohrid, has yielded rich finds from princely graves, among them this lovely gold portrait mask (4th c. BC), showing the influence of Mycenean culture.

The St. Mary Most Glorious (currently, St. Kliment) Church in Ohrid (1295) has some of the finest frescoes which can be found on the territory of nowadays Republic of Macedonia.

One of the frescoes consists of three separate parts. The lowest one displays the images of three saints - from left to right, St. Nikola, St. Clement of Ohrid, and St. Konstantin Kavasila (archbishop of Ohrid ).

The part in the middle shows biblical pictures. The wedding of Virgin Mary and Joseph is shown on the first one. An interesting detail is that the face of Virgin Mary is painted smaller than the face of Joseph. This is the way the 13th century artist hinted that Virgin Mary is younger than Joseph. To the right of that image is a picture of the Annunciation ( Blagovestie ) in which angel Gabriel ( Gavril ) tells Mary that she is pregnant and will give birth to Jesus Christ, the son of God.

The upper part of the fresco is devoted to the grief upon Christ's death (Pieta). This fresco along with the one from St. Pantelejmon monastery in Skopje is not only of great religious importance. These frescoes are also interesting from history of art point of view. The images of people with feelings and a "body", in pain and grief over the lost Jesus Christ, images which give an impression of reality are quite different from the lifeless images dominating the Byzantium art during the middle ages. This style is similar to what appeared a century and a half later during the Renaissance age in Italy