Tronosa Monastery

Tronosa monastery is located in the central part of Serbia, in Macva District, near Trsic village.

Queen Katalina

According to legend, King Dragutin started building the monastery, but he died during its construction. Therefore his wife, Queen Katalina, finished it in 1317. However, in the Tronosa Chronicle from 1791, only Dragutin’s wife is mentioned as the founder of the monastery.

The church of Tronosa monastery is dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, and is a single nave building built in 1559 in the Raska architectural style. The Iconostasis was painted in 1834 by Nikola Jankovic, the 19^th century church painter, who painted all the icons except two which were done in 1866. The monastery was consecrated in 1834.

Today’s monastery complex consists of: a church, new quarters with a spacious dining room, an exhibition room, and a museum dedicated to Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (Serbian linguist and major reformer of the Serbian language) who was educated in this monastery from 1797.

There is a concrete fountain not far from the monastery, built (according to legend) by Jug Bogdan and the nine brothers Jugovic before heading to the Battle of Kosovo. Above the fountain there is a chapel dedicated to St. Panteleimon. It was rebuilt by Archimandrite Metodije and a merchant from Lesnica, Mladen Isakovic, in 1894. The last renewal of the chapel and the fountain was done by Bishop Jovan and the Prior of Tronosa, Antonije Djurdjevic. On the exterior of the chapel, above the water pipe, there’s a mosaic representing the nine Jugovic brothers with Jug Bogdan in the middle, all on their horses heading to the battle of Kosovo.

Chapel with a fountain

The monastery played an important part in the preservation of Serbian culture and tradition.

Prior Jovan formed a copying school in the monastery, where between 1571 and 1581 service books for Tronosa and other nearby monasteries were copied, thus preserving the historical and cultural documents of Serbia.

One of the most beautiful folk customs connected to Tronosa monastery are the so-called Cropping Candles. Two nearby villages collect contributions of wax and money in order to make candles 2m high and weighing over 50kg.

During the Turkish period, Tronosa was burnt, demolished and pillaged several times. It was rebuilt in 1559. The monastery was burnt again in 1813, and restored in 1833 thanks to Prince Milos Obrenovic.

During the First and Second Serbian uprising, Tronosa was a meeting place of the uprisings leaders. In WWI a hospital was improvised in the monastery for the wounded. The last demolition of Tronosa was at the beginning of WWII, when besides major damage to the building, valuable manuscripts and objects from the treasury were destroyed. After WWII the church was restored between 1964 and 1987, during the festivities dedicated to Vuk Karadzic.

Grgeteg Monastery

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The Grgeteg Monastery is located on the southern slope of Fruska Gora Mountain in northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. The monastic church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas. According to tradition, it was founded by Despot Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk (Vuk Brankovic) in 1471: the intention was to place his blind father Grgur, a monk from Hilandar monastery, there, and the monastery got its name in reference to his father. However, Grgur died in 1459, and was buried under his monastic name of Father German; therefore the story remains just a legend. 

The first reliable historical records come from Turkish documents dating from 1546.

The monastery was abandoned at the end of the 17^th century, during the Austro-Turkish wars, and remained deserted until the Great Serbian Migration in 1690, when it was inhabited by the monks who fled from Serbia.

The old stone church was replaced by the new baroque edifice between 1766 and 1771 when the bell tower was also built.

There were two iconostases in the church: the first one, which remained in the church till 1901, was painted by Jakov Orfelin in 1774. The other, still present today, was designed by Herman Bolle and painted by Uros Predic in 1902. Of Orfelin’s work, only two icons were preserved – one of St. Nicholas and another of St. John the Baptist. Herman Bolle also designed a small wooden iconostasis for the chapel, upon which the icons were painted by the famous painter and cartoonist Pjer Krizanic in 1911.

Iconostasis

Monastic quarters were built in the second half of the 18^th century, and were renewed together with the church in 1901.

St.Nicholas church surrounded by monastic quarters

In WWII the monastery suffered great destruction – the Croatian Ustase destroyed the monastic library, the archive and other cultural, historical and artistic works. Almost 2000 rare old books and the entire archive, collected from the late 17^th century up to the war years, were used as fire fuel. German troops, together with the Ustase, threw huge numbers of grenades into the monastery on 22^nd September 1943, then mined and destroyed the bell tower.

Demolition of the monastery continued even after the war – mainly by the peasants from the nearby villages who stole the bricks, and communist youths, who shot the images of the Saints on the iconostases, which still bear the bullets - especially the composition “The Annunciation” and the image of Christ.

Conservation and restoration have been under way since 1987.

Three Handed Virgin

Today, the monastery complex consists of the church, quarters on all 4 sides, and administrative buildings. There is an icon of the Three Handed Virgin, thus the monastery is visited by many pilgrims.

Grgeteg Monastery was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia.

Banjska Monastery

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Banjska Monastery, the royal sepulchre of the Serbian King Stefan Uros II Milutin (one of the most powerful Balkan rulers of the period and one of the most powerful rulers of the entire Nemanjic dynasty) is located near the village of Banjska in Zvecan municipality, north of Kosovska Mitrovica.

Aerial view

King Milutin

King Milutin's Relics

The monastery church, dedicated to the Holy Archdeacon Stefan, was built in the same location where the seat of the Banjska diocese existed in the 13th century, during the rule of Milutin's father, King Uros I. During Milutin's reign the monastery was restored between 1313 and 1316 and became the fourth most important monastery in the Serbian Archdiocese. When the Holy King Milutin passed away in his summer palace in Nerodimlje (near Urosevac) in the year 1321, Archbishop Danilo II (appointed builder of the shrine) transferred his body to Banjska where he was buried with full royal honours. However, following the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 his body was moved to Trepca and then in 1445 to Sofia, in Bulgaria, in the church of St. Alexander Nevsky, awaiting its return to Banjska once more.

The monumental building with its church, library, monks' quarters and "imperial palace" began to fall into disrepair very quickly. At the beginning of the 15th century, a fire destroyed the library and in the second half of the same century the monastery is presumed to have been abandoned. During the 17th century the Turks desecrated the holy site and transformed the church of Banjska Monastery into a mosque. The monastery suffered great destruction in 1689 when the Turkish and Austrian armies alternately used it as a fortress during the Austrian-Turkish War.

Queen Theodora’s Ring

At the end of the 17th century the Turks dug up the marble floor of the church in a sacrilegious quest to find the gold of Archbishop Danilo. The first more serious investigations began immediately after the liberation of Kosovo and Metohija in 1912. In 1915 two gold rings were found in the grave of Queen Theodora, the mother of the Emperor Dusan, later buried in the northern chapel of the church. These rings are considered to be the most beautiful examples of Serbian medieval jewellery: one of them is adorned with an antique cameo and the other contains the image of a heraldic eagle with the inscription “Who wears this, God bless them”. The cameo ring is held by the family of the famous collector Ljubomir Nedeljkovic, and the heraldic ring is preserved in the National Museum in Belgrade. In 1938, after the end of the investigation and the digging up of the foundations of the surrounding residence halls, the church was partially restored and placed under a temporary roof.

The monastery was granted a large estate at its founding, a profitable grant of 75 villages and 8 pastures. According to medieval sources, as well as oral tradition, Banjska was one of the most beautiful Serbian monasteries, built in the style of the Raska School, using the plan of the church of the Theodokos in Studenica as a model, specifically requested by King Milutin.

The base of the church consists of a single nave building with the monumental apse and chapels on both sides of the main nave. The portal on the west side was adorned with two monumental towers.

The exterior is decorated with a combination of tricoloured marble as well as rich stone sculptures. The most significant preserved sample, a relief sculpture of the Theodokos with Christ that decorated the main portal, is today located in the nearby Sokolica Monastery. Only fragments presenting the saints in arched medallions under the main cupola from the rich frescoes done during the period from 1317 to 1321 have been preserved.

Exterior

Banjska Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia.