The Plaoshnik site is located at the southern foot of the higher hill of Ohrid, on a flat plateau between the citadel of Samoil Fortress and the church of St. Jovan Kaneo on the shore of Lake Ohrid. Plaoshnik is an exceptional archeological complex with cultural layers from prehistory, antiquity and the Middle Ages. Plaoshnik, Church of St. Clement and St. Panteleimon, Ohrid, 893. The Church of St. Clement and St. Panteleimon is historically, culturally and spiritually the most important and most sacred space for Macedonia and beyond. This sanctuary played a great role in the enlightenment of the Macedonians.
Saint Clement who was one of the most prominent students of Cyril and Methodius at the end of the 9th century came to Ohrid and in 893 built the Church of Panteleimon on Plaoshnik. In addition to his spiritual activity, he had a huge enlightening influence. He founded the Ohrid Literary School in Plaoshnik. More than 3,500 prepared students passed through the Ohrid Literary School and at that time it was a center of education and language, better known as the “First Slavic University”. The church books that were written in Cyrillic in the Ohrid Literary School were the foundation for the spread of Orthodox Christianity in the Balkans and beyond.
While still alive, St. Clement expanded the church and built a nearby tomb in which he was buried after his death in 916. In the 15th century during the Ottoman rule, the church was completely destroyed. In 2002, the church of St. Panteleimon was renovated and the relics of St. Clement were transferred to it. From that moment the church officially bears the name of St. Clement and St. Panteleimon.
With the latest systematic archeological excavations that took place from March to December 2007 and during 2008, the realization of the second phase of the project “Plaoshnik” started, ie the realization of the project Reconstruction of St. Clement’s University of Plaoshnik in Ohrid began. The purpose of this research, which has continued and is still ongoing, is to completely explore the space of the so-called St. Clement’s soil and, among other things, to determine the remains of the existence of the monastery lodgings, which in this case would mean the location of the spatial conditions for the functioning of the so-called Ohrid Literary School, or the Ohrid Literary Academy, or, as it is already called, St. Clement’s University.