Gračanica Monastery

Coordinates: 42°35′54″N 21°11′36″E / 42.59833°N 21.19333°E / 42.59833; 21.19333
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Gračanica Monastery
Манастир Грачаница (
Serbo-Byzantine style
Site
LocationVillage of Gračanica, 5 km (3.1 mi) from Pristina, Kosovo
Public accessyes
Europe and North America
Extensions2006
Endangered2006–...
Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance
Designated25 October 1947
Reference no.СК 1367[1]

The Gračanica Monastery (

World Heritage List under the name of Medieval Monuments in Kosovo as an extension of the Visoki Dečani site, which was overall placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.[3]

The Gračanica Monastery is one of King Milutin's last monumental endowments. The monastery is located in Gračanica, a Serbian enclave in the close vicinity of Lipjan, the old residence of bishops of Lipljan.

Geography

The monastery is located in

Sitnica river. The name is derived from Slavic Gradac, a toponym of fortified cities.[4]

History

ktetor (founder) fresco with Stefan Milutin holding a model of the church, ca. 1321.

Gračanica was constructed on the ruins of an older 13th-century church of the Holy Virgin. It was located in the centre of the Eparchy of Lipljan. Stefan Milutin's ktetor comment are written on the southern wall, including "I have seen the ruins and the decay of the Holy Virgin's temple of Gračanica, the bishopric of Lipljan, so I have built it from the ground and painted and decorated it both from inside and outside". In 1346, when the Serbian Archbishopric was raised to the rank of Patriarchate, the bishop of Lipljan was granted the honorary title of metropolitan bishop, and since that time they were called metropolitans of Lipljan or Gračanica.

Of the former monastic compound, only the church has survived. The narthex and the tower were added a few decades later, in order to protect the frescoes on the west facade. The narthex was heavily damaged by the Ottomans several times between 1379–1383, when the tower was burned and a fire devoured a rich collection of manuscripts and other precious objects. The narthex was reconstructed in 1383. Again, Gračanica suffered damages at the time of the Battle of Kosovo (1389).

During Ottoman rule Gračanica became an important cultural center. In the time of Metropolitan Nikanor (1528–1555) several icons were painted on the

Patriarch Arsenije III
.

After the

icon painting, agriculture, sewing
and other monastic obediences.

In 1999 the monastery was bombed twice

Serb community in Kosovo
.

The monastery was declared a

World Heritage List under the name of Medieval Monuments in Kosovo as an extension of the Visoki Dečani site which was overall placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.[1][6]

Architecture

Gračanica represents the culmination of the

Medieval Serbian art of building in the Serbo-Byzantine tradition. The church has the form of a double inscribed cross, one inside the other, the inner one providing for a vertical silhouette so as to raise the central dome upwards on a graded elaboration of masses. The dome rests on four free-standing pillars. Above the spaces between the cross-shafts, four smaller domes give a regular structure to the whole crowning complex. Three three-sided apses (the central one being the largest) put a mild distinction on the altar space externally. The diaconicon and the prothesis are separated by full walls. Between the nave and the narthex there are wide, heavy pillars and the katolikon (conventual church) is on a level higher. The church was built in alternate courses of brick and stone. At the end of the 14th century an exonarthex was added with double arcades
, but these were blinded in the 16th century.

Art

Gračanica painted fauvistically by Nadežda Petrović (1913).
Dormition of the Mother of God, fresco from Gračanica, c. 1321. (See also Palaiologian Renaissance)

In the church three kinds of

ecclesiastical calendar
.

The focal paintings of Gračanica include the

Mother of God. The master painters supposedly were Michael and Eutihije
with their assistants.

There are also considerable frescoes from 1570 in the exonarthex, commissioned by Patriarch

Ecumenical Councils. Two subjects, however, dominate the narthex of Gračanica: the Doxology to the Holy Virgin and the procession of the Serbian archbishops from Saint Sava to Patriarch Makarije Sokolović
. A historical composition of the death of the Metropolitan of Gračanica Dionisije covers the southeastern part of the narthex.

The paintings of Gračanica rank highest among the achievements of Milutin's period, characterized by influences of the Byzantine splendiferous and luxurious style called the Paleologan Renaissance. In terms of style, they are also related to the art of the other of Milutin's foundations.[7]

Gallery

  • "Gračanica", "Autochrome", Auguste Léon, 1913.
    "Gračanica", "Autochrome", Auguste Léon, 1913.
  • Monastery building.
    Monastery building.
  • Interior
    Interior
  • Queen Hélène d'Anjou as a nun and King Milutin as a monk, fresco from Gračanica.
    Queen Hélène d'Anjou as a nun and King Milutin as a monk, fresco from Gračanica.
  • Queen Simonida of Serbia, wife of King Milutin, fresco from Gračanica.
    Queen Simonida of Serbia, wife of King Milutin, fresco from Gračanica.
  • Last Judgment, narthex c. 1321
    Last Judgment, narthex c. 1321
  • Abraham in paradise
    Abraham in paradise

Legacy

The design of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade is based on the models of Gračanica and Hagia Sophia. In Chicago, the New Gračanica church is a detailed replica of Gračanica, completed and consecrated in 1984.[8][9] The Hercegovačka Gračanica Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Херцеговачка Грачаница, romanized: Manastir Hercegovačka Gračanica), completed in the year 2000, is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in Trebinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is largely a copy of the Gračanica monastery in Kosovo.[10][11]

There are poems dedicated to Gračanica by Zorka Stojanović and Desanka Maksimović.

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Monuments of Culture in Serbia: МАНАСТИР ГРАЧАНИЦА (SANU) (in Serbian and English)
  2. ^ "Medieval Monuments in Kosovo". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  3. ^ "World Heritage Committee puts Medieval Monuments in Kosovo on Danger List and extends site in Andorra, ending this year's inscriptions". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  4. ISBN 978-86-7025-621-7
    .
  5. ^ Adam Jones (ed.), Genocide, War Crimes and the West: History and Complicity, 2004.
  6. ^ UNESCO (2006). "List of World Heritage in Danger". Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  7. ^ "The Art of Gracanica Monastery". www.kosovo.net. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  8. ^ "Monastery". Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  9. ^ "New Gracanica-Midwestern America". serborth.org. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  10. ^ TheSrpskaTimes (8 January 2020). "The Monastery Hercegovačka Gračanica: A pearl of spirituality and culture (VIDEO) | The Srpska Times". Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Hercegovačka Gračanica | Sightseeing | Trebinje". www.inyourpocket.com. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  12. YouTube Official channel of RTS

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gračanica Monastery.

External links

42°35′54″N 21°11′36″E / 42.59833°N 21.19333°E / 42.59833; 21.19333

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