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Kumanica Monastery, Church of the Sts. Archangel Michael and Gabriel

Crkva Sv. Arhandjela Mihaila i Gavrila, Црква Св. Арханђела Михаила и Гаврила

Begin 01.01.1200
End 01.01.1400

Description

The Church of the Sts. Archangel Michael and Gabriel (dedicated to the Synaxis of the Holy Archangels) of the Kumanica Monastery was built during the 13th or 14th century (Gsnd XI 132). It is located at the entrance to the Kumanica Gorge, on the right bank of the river Lim, in the village of Vrbnica, which today belongs to the municipality of Sjenica in Serbia.
The church had three building phases. The earliest would include the revetment for levelling the ground at the bottom of the cliff as well as the modest structure leaning against the rock shelter face. Of this oldest building only vestiges of the Southern wall with its footing, partially lying under the South-Eastern corner of the church, have survived. In the 14th century a one-nave church was built on the site of the original building. It was no longer a cave church in the literal sense of the word, but the echoes of the original idea were preserved through the "chapel", a small building erected against the Eastern wall of the Church, which directly leaned on the cliff. In the last building phase, in the 16th century, the church has a cruciform plan with a semicircular apse in the East, two rectangular side chapels and a narthex at the Western end. The monastery survived the Ottoman conquest as evidenced by the record of the monk Mihailo from 1514. The church was rebuilt in 2000.

Files

The Church of the Saints Archangel Michael and Gabriel in the Monastery of Kumanica
The Church of the Saints Archangel Michael and Gabriel in the Monastery of Kumanica