The Icon Gallery-Ohrid is situated in the ambiental whole "St. Clement", in front of the entrance of the church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos, nearby the churches of St. Demetrius, SS. Constantine and Helena and Holy Physicians the Lesser. In 19th century this entire complex had explicitly religious and educative character. This object was built in 1845-50 in the yard of the church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos as a class school "in front of the church entrance of the Metropolitan's residence, on the place of the destroyed rows of monastery buildings". After the expulsion of the Greek metropolitan from Ohrid, around 1873-74, this Greek school was used for Slavic education. During World War II this object housed the city library of Ohrid and after the war it was used for various purposes. In addition to everything else, the professional theatre of Ohrid prepared and performed its plays in the period between 1949 and 1954.

       While the nearby old elementary school "St. Clement of Ohrid" was in use, this object was used as a gymnastic hall for the pupils, so-called "amusement room". When the new elementary school was built the object was given to the Institute for Protection of the Monuments of Culture and National Museum-Ohrid. In the period between 1981 and 1983 the object was reconstructed and revitalized into a modem Gallery of icons where the most valuable icons from the region of Ohrid, created in a longer period of time between 11th and 19th centuries are displayed. Previously, these icons were placed in the external parvis of the church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos where they were displayed for the first time in 1961 on occasion of the 12th Byzantologist's Congress that was held in Ohrid.

           In 2000, while all the world was celebrating the great anniversary of the Christianity, the Icon Gallery-Ohrid was readapted. With a new concept of the collection, modernization of the spatial, security and microclimatic conditions, the icons of Ohrid collection finally got a room that they certainly deserve according to their significance, quality and beauty. Most of these icons that, besides the icons from Mt. Sinai, Mt. Athos and Russia, belong to the rank of the greatest achievements of the Byzantine and Slavic icon painting, possess high artistic qualities and are set apart by their extraordinary coloristic refinement and beauty of the artistic treatment. Many of them have been painted in the mediaeval workshops of Ohrid while some have been brought in Ohrid from Salonica and Constantinople as presents for the churches. Some of these icons are covered with silver revetments that are decorated with miniature figures of prophets and various saints, scenes from the Old and New Testaments as well as floral and geometrical ornaments. Now, gathered in one place, in the Icon Gallery-Ohrid, these icons are accessible to the senses of the numerous visitors, experts and passers-by, and through various international exhibitions, Orthodox Christian art lovers in Paris, Sarajevo, Tokyo, Kyoto, Vatican, Zagreb, Rome, Padua, Krakow, New York, London, Utrecht have also admired their beauty.