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Gračanica, Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God
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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.
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Peć, Church of St. Demetrius (Patriarchate of Peć)
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The Church of St. Demetrius is situated in the city of Peć. It was built by Archbishop Nikodim, probably between 1320 and 1324, as is written in the Peć Chronicle.
It is a reduced cruciform edifice with a spacious dome and altar. Western bay is lower and dimmer than the rest of the Church (serving as a resting place of two Patriarchs - Jefrem and possibly Sava IV). It has a cross (groin) vault, which was, as some scholars believe, built later.
In 1614 some parts of the building (namely its Northern wall) have been reconstructed.
On the altar screen some sculpture can be seen. The Church was fresco painted in the middle of the 14th century, and renovated in the 17th century. The name of one painter (out of two who painted this Church) has remained inscribed in the apse in Greek lettering.
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Peć, Church of the Holy Apostles (The Patriarchate of Peć)
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The Church of the Holy Apostles is situated in the city of Peć. It was built by Archbishop Arsenije I in the middle of the 13th century (even though an inscription on one of the frescoes from the 14th century states that St. Sava initiated the construction). In time, as other buildings erected next to this Church, its shape changed so the original appearance of the Holy Apostles cannot be reliably reconstructed.
The Church belongs to the Raška style and was a seat of Archbishopric (after it was moved from the Žiča Monastery) and later raised to the rank of Patriarchate (1346-1766).
The Church was built on the grounds of an older three nave basilica which was reconstructed and modified to a single nave edifice with a dome and an apse with proskomidia and diakonikon. Side naves became chapels. Nave was elongated and suitable for liturgical purposes. Along its Western part there were once chapels (paracclesions) which were demolished in the 14th century. Today it is a space of rectangular base with a semicircular vault.
Similar solutions are to found in Pridvorica and Davidovica.
Along the South wall of the central bay is a sarcophagus which once housed the remains of Archbishop Arsenije I. Another sarcophagus in the South-West corner of the Church kept the relics of Joanikije II, the first patriarch of the Patriarchate in Peć. The tomb of Archbishop Sava II is located between these two sarcophagi, also placed along the South wall.
The Church was fresco decorated in the 13th century. Western part of the Church was decorated in the time of King Milutin, marking the beginning of a new style, that of the 14th century.
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Sopoćani Monastery, Church of the Holy Trinity
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The Sopoćani Monastery is situated near the source of the river Raška in the region of Ras in the vicinity of the city of Novi Pazar. The church was built by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš I (reigned 1243-1276), the son of the Serbian King Stefan Prvovenčani (reigned 1196-1227) around 1260 (PJŠ Pam., 70 - sьzida že crьkovь Sopokjani). The exonarthex and a bell tower were added later, in the first half of the 14th century (resembling the Žiča Monastery). The church is a mausoleum of members of the royal Nemanjić members: the King's mother Anna Dandolo, Stefan Prvovenčani, Grand Duke Djordje and King Uroš I himself. It is a single nave edifice with three bays and a dome and has a three-partite semicircular apse as well as a narthex. On the sides of the narthex are separate chambers. On the outside, the edifice resembles a three-nave basilica (all side rooms, next to the altar, choirs and chapels are placed under one, single-pitched roof), which is also the element that distinguishes this building from the others of the Raška style group. The windows and portals were done by masters from the coastal area in the Romanesque style. The entire church was fresco painted around 1270. After being damaged, the church was reconstructed in the 15th century (at the time some alterations were made). After the Ottoman rule, in the 20th century, this site was reconstructed and renovated.
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