The Gračanica Monastery is situated near Lipljan, in Kosovo. It was built by King Milutin and his wife Simonida in 1321, on the grounds of an late antique three-nave basilica from the 6th century.
The Church is in the form of a double inscribed cross, with a dome which rests on on four free-standing pillars and three-sided apses (altar, diaconicon and prothesis). Above the spaces between the cross-shafts are four smaller domes. Narthex and a tower on the West were damaged between 1379 and 1383 by the Turk invasions. In 1383 the narthex was reconstructed. The exonarthex was built at the end of the 14th century.
The Church was fresco painted in 1321-1322 and has been well preserved to this day, including famous portraits of the ktetors. In the 16th century exonarthex was painted, as commissioned by Patriarch Makarije Sokolović.
Numerous icons, dated 16-19th century are still kept in Gračanica.