The church of the Presentation of the Mother of God in Lipljan was built most likely, in the second or third decade of the 14th century, on the foundations of an earlier Byzantine basilica. It was mentioned for the first time in 1331 in one of King Dušan's charters; in 1336, it was donated to the Tower (Pirg) of the Ascension in Hilandar. The original church paintings have been dated to the middle of the 14th century.

The church is a single-nave edifice with the sanctuary on the east end and a narthex on the west. The altar apse is three-sided on the outside and semi-circular on the inside. The church is built in the alternation of stone and brick and the facade is decorated with blind arcades and ornaments sculpted in low relief.

The original 14th-century painting of exquisite beauty and high artistic value was lost in the fire and only a few frescoes have been preserved. In the lower zone of the sanctuary, figures of the Officiating Church Fathers are preserved, as well as the frescoes of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom in the apse (painted over in the 16th century); St. Amphilochios, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Cyril from Alexandria on the east wall of the altar, St. Blaise and an unidentified archbishop on the south wall, an unidentified archbishop and what seems to be St. Sava the Serbian on the east side of the altar partition wall, and the figure of St. Spiridon is the only one remaining in the lower zone of the north wall.

In the upper zones of the sanctuary, fragments of the Holy Mother of God from the Annunciation on the south section of the east wall are preserved, Archangel Gabriel from the Annunciation on the north section of the east wall, the Vision of St. Peter of Alexandria and the Incredulity of Thomas on the north wall.

In the lower zone of the nave, in the shallow niche of the north wall, there is a small fresco-icon of St. Nicholas with an unknown donor. In the upper zone of the nave, few of the frescoes of the original painting have been preserved - those from the Passion of Christ cycle, the Last Supper and Washing of the feet on the south wall, Christ being raised on the Cross on the north wall, and the scene of the Dormition of the Mother of God on the west wall of the nave.

Upper zones of the Lipljan church were restored in the second half of the 16th century, and between 1590 and 1621 some parts of the church were repainted with frescoes.

On the west side of the masonry iconostasis, there is a Mother of God with Christ and two saints - stylites. On the second tier, there is an extended Deisis with the busts of the apostles. In the third tier, the Crucifixion and the Lamentation are depicted, while in the fourth tier are the Healing of the Blind and the Healing of the Paralytic, with the fragments of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at the top. In the openings and at jambs, there are standing figures of saints.

Upper zones of the church narthex are almost completely painted with frescoes of the Last Judgment cycle, including the pillars between the narthex and the nave. In the first zone of these pillars are figures of the Holy Mother of God with Christ, Jesus Christ, and Archangels Michael and Gabriel, in the second zone are holy melodists Theophanes and Joseph, and in the third zone of the south-west pillars is the Healing of sight of Stefan Dečanski.

Conservation works on the church architecture and fresco paintings were performed in 1955-58, and again in 2009-10 when the portraits of the ruling couple, Dušan and Jelena, were discovered on the layer of the original plaster on the western facade of the church.