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Budimlja, Monastery of Djurdjevi Stupovi (St. George)
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The Monastery of Djurdjevi Stupovi (St. George) is situated in Budimlja near Berane and was built by Stefan Prvoslav, the son of Tihomir, as his mausoleum between 1170 and 1190. The monastery also served as the see of the Bishops of Budimlja (Rl. 9, 43). (PJ Š Pam., 68 - sьzyda crьkovь ... u Budimlje svetago Geōrgïa; LjS ZiN I, 1029 (286) episkopь Budimlьsky Teofilь ... vь domu svetago velikago Strastotrьpьca Hristova Georgïa).
The church underwent several reconstructions, but its plan remained the same. It is a single nave edifice with three bays and a dome. Later, in the 13th century (certainly by the 1240s), a narthex was added in the West of it with two rectangular-based towers. As most researchers believe, it was built by masters from the Adriatic (as to be seen in the polychromic façade), following the model of Apulian churches. Also, this church is similar in plan with the Church of St. Luke in Kotor.
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Ras, Monastery of Djurdjevi Stupovi
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The Church of St. George is situated in Ras near the city of Novi Pazar and in close proximity to the episcopal see of Raška, a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. It was built in the years 1170-1171 by the Serbian Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja (reigned 1166/68-1196) as a combination of Byzantine and Latin spatial composition and construction, and as such belongs to the so-called Raška school of architecture. It was fresco decorated in 1975. The church is designed as a single nave edifice divided into three parts: the three-part altar space, the central bay and the narthex. Above the central part of the building is a dome with elliptical base, which is rather unusual, and decorated inside with arcades on free-standing colonettes. The entrances with vestibules on the lateral sides of the bay under the dome were created as a new solution. It has bell towers on its Western side (Spis sv Save 60-61; Kralj Stefan 5, Domentijan 16-17). (BĐ ŽSN., 23 - s(ve)ty m(u)č(e)niče H(ri)stovь Geōr'gije).
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Toplica, Church of St. Nicholas (near Kuršumlija)
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The Church of St. Nicholas is situated in Toplica, near Kuršumlija, in the upper valley of Toplica River. It is the oldest Church built by Stefan Nemanja in Byzantine manner, sometime between 1155 and 1165.
Its a single nave edifice, divided along its length into three parts. with a dome and an apse, also divided into three parts. The dome rises above the squarely designed central bay of the nave. There is a bell tower on the West side of the Church (built probably at the beginning of the 13th century since the building material is slightly different from the rest of the Church), resembling the Church of St. Tryphon in Kotor. The façade is decorated with shallow blind arches.
A tomb inside the Church was probably meant to be Nemanja's gravesite.
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Toplica, Church of the Mother of God (near Kuršumlija)
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The Church of the Mother of God is situated in Toplica, near Kuršumlija. The edifice was erected by Stefan Nemanja in 1155-1165, in an ancient place of cult dated to the 6th century.
Its a single nave triconchos, with an apse (triangular on the outside and semicircular on the inside) on its Eastern end and a narthex with two towers with rectangular ground plans (some researchers indicate that the towers were to mark the Church as a royal endowment, in accordance with the dominant custom of the time in the countries close to Raška, primarily Hungary). The Church was probably built by Constantinopolitan builders (masters). Therefore, some researchers believe that the construction of this and the Church dedicated to St. Nicholas, situated in its close proximity, sparked dispute between Nemanja (who was close to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos) and his older brothers.
Today the Church is in ruins.
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Čačak, Gradac Church of the Mother of God (Church of the Ascension)
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The Church of the Mother of God (today's Church of the Ascension of Jesus Christ) was situated in today's city of Čačak (former Moravski Gradac). It was built by the Grand Župan (Stefan) Stracimir, brother of Stefan Nemanja (RL. 9, 43, Mar 65) probably before 1186. It became episcopal Church in the 14th century, and later turned into a metropolitanate. During Ottoman occupation the Church was turned into a mosque. Today, on its place, a new Church, dedicated to Christ, was built.
The first written testimonies of the Church are found in the Studenica typicon (1207–1215), and later in the Charter of the Žiča Monastery.
It was a single nave edifice with a dome, tripartite apse and two bell towers on the Western side. The present appearance is the result of some adaptations, especially those into a mosque.
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