Mileševa Monastery

Coordinates: 43°23′24″N 19°39′41″E / 43.39°N 19.6614°E / 43.39; 19.6614
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Mileševa Monastery
Милешева Манастир
Mileševa Manastir
Црква св. Благовјештења
Crkva sv. Blagovještenja
Style
Raška school
Byzantine
Years built1234
Administration
ArchdioceseEparchy of Mileševa

The Mileševa Monastery (

Stefan Vladislav I,[1]
in the years between 1234 and 1236. The church has frescoes by the most skillful artists of that time, including one of the most famous in Serbian culture, the "White Angel", which depicts an angel at Christ's tomb. Mileševa is considered to contain one of the most beautiful works of European arts from Middle ages.

History

Monastery tower
The White Angel
St. Sava
, painted during his lifetime.

The Mileševa monastery was founded between 1234 and 1236 by Serbian King Vladislav. The monastery is situated in a valley of the Mileševa River, near Prijepolje. Mileševa is one of the most important Serbian sanctuaries and spiritual centers. In 1236, Vladislav moved the relics of his uncle Saint Sava from Trnovo in Bulgaria, where he died, to Mileševa. Some historians believe that the coronation of Tvrtko I as King of the Serbs and Bosnia in 1377,[2] took place in Mileševa.[3] In the 15th century, the monastery was the seat of the Metropolitanate of Dabar-Bosnia. In 1459, the Ottomans set the monastery on fire,[citation needed] but it was soon restored. In the first half of the 16th century, the first service books were illuminated in the Mileševa printing house.[4] One of the oldest schools also existed in the monastery. In the middle of the century, during the time of Patriarch Makarije (the Serbian Patriarchate was restored in 1557), the monastery was thoroughly renovated. Its external narthex was built and painted and probably cut through the wall between the narthex and the nave. In later times, after several Ottoman military engagements,[5] a new restoration was undertaken in 1863 when the church considerably changed in appearance.

The Mileševa monastery has been frequently visited by pilgrims and various travellers, including

Ivan IV Vasilyevich) and Wallachian and Moldavian rulers. In 1594, the Ottomans removed the relics of Saint Sava from the monastery and publicly burned them on Vračar hill in Belgrade, making him thus a posthumous martyr. On 27 October 1941, the Communist forces broke into the monastery and killed its hegumen Nestor Trkulja.[8]

Mileševa was declared

Republic of Serbia
.

Architecture

The Church, dedicated to the

Ascension of Our Lord, architecturally belongs to the Raška school
. Its ground plan is unique. Its single nave widens from the west eastward, so that the eastern bay is omitted completely, which results in the three altar apses leaning directly on the domed east wall. Inside, the dome is raised on several arches in a stairway-like arrangement. The narthex was added in 1236 upon which, during a 19th-century restoration, a dome was constructed on top.

Art

The first group of frescoes was produced in the 1230s. The other groups include works from the

Radoslav and Vladislav. The frescoes in the narthex and the adjacent chapel were presumably painted in the 1230s and 1240s. They illustrate the last Judgment and the lives of some saints. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the church was repainted with a new layer of frescoes of which only fragments of the Last Supper under the dome and the Forty Martyrs
in the north choir have survived. These frescoes were damaged in a fire, but they happened to save (acting like a protective layer) the earlier and more valuable paintings from the 13th century.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mileševa monastery.
  • List of Serb Orthodox monasteries
  • Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance
  • Tourism in Serbia

References

  1. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 46, 58.
  2. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 81.
  3. ^ Ćirković 2014, p. 107-143.
  4. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 139.
  5. ^ "Serbia - the disintegration of Ottoman rule".
  6. ISSN 0584-9888
    .
  7. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 141.
  8. doi:10.29362/ist20veka.2019.1.ziv.75-92
    . Retrieved 3 November 2019. Koji razlog je među navedenima ključan možda najbolje govori podatak da su komunističke likvidacije u Starom Rasu počele još u oktobru 1941. godine. Pripadnici Mileševske partizanske čete su, na primer, 27. oktobra upali u manastir Mileševu i zarobili tamošnjeg igumana Nestora Trkulju. Potom su ga streljali bez jasno utvrđene krivice.

Sources

External links

43°23′24″N 19°39′41″E / 43.39°N 19.6614°E / 43.39; 19.6614

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