Blaga Eleksova was born in 1922 in Tetovo, and finished high school in Skopje. In 1950 she obtained the high education (Art History) at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Skopje, and in 1958 her PhD at the University of Ljubljana, in the field of medieval archeology (with the topic “Demir Kapija and the Slavic Necropolises in Macedonia”). She continued her scientific training at the Dumbarton Oaks Centre for Byzantine Studies of Harvard University in Washington D.C.
Aleksova began her career as a curator in the Municipal Museum of Skopje (1948‒1950), and from 1950 in the Archaeological Museum of Macedonia ‒ as a Head of the Department for Medieval Archaeology and as a director (1962‒1975). From 1975 she was a professor at the Institute for Art History and Archaeology at the University “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje. In 1997 she became a member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
During her life she has led a number of excavations at archaeological sites throughout Macedonia and she was involved in many projects: “Archaeological Map of Yugoslavia”, “Archaeological Map of Macedonia”, “Old-Christian Slavic Centers in Macedonia” etc. In co-operation with C. Mango and J. Wiseman, she was a co-superviser within the international Yugoslav-American projects in Bargala and Stobi. Aleksova has also given lectures in many universities abroad, such as Dumbarton Oaks Centre for Byzantine Studies of Harvard University in Washington D.C. and other universities through USA (Maryland, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and Boston). The results of her researches have been published in monographs (Episkopijata na Bregalnica. Prv slovenski crkoven i kulturno-prosveten centar vo Makedonija, Prilep, 1989; Loca Sanctorum Macedoniae. The Cult of Martyrs in Macedonia from the 4th to the 19th Centuries, Skopje, 1997; etc.) and numerous articles. For her achievements, she has received the decorations: Order of Labor with a Golden Crown (1966), “11 October” (1970), “Goce Delčev” (1990) and “8 November” (1993). Blaga Aleksova died in 2007 in Skopje.
Photo: Blaga Aleksova (Source: Blaga Aleksova, Loca Sanctorum Macedoniae. The Cult of Martyrs in Macedonia from the 4th to the 19th Centuries, Institute for Old Slavic Culture, Macedonian Civilization-Skopje, Skopje, 1997).
Author: Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska