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Banjska Monastery, Church of St. Stephen
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Banjska Monastery is situated by the Banjska river, near Zvečan in the North of Kosovo. It was built by King Milutin in 1313 to 1315, modelled on Studenica Monastery.
Its a single nave edifice with a dome and tripartite altar space. To the North and South of the central part of the Church are choirs with paracclesions next to each. Narthex has two bell-towers on its Western end.
The Church is rich with Romanesque sculptural decoration (it was probably made by the same artisans who worked in the Chilandar Monastery).The most prominent sculptural decoration is the statue of the Virgin with Christ as a child (kept in the nearby Monastery of Sokolica).
Some frescoes have remained, mostly under the dome.
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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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Hvosno, Monastery of the Mother of God
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Monastery of the Mother of God in Hvosno is situated 20km from Peć, not for from the village called Studenica, which is why this place is known by the name Studenica Hvostanska or Little Studenica.
This cult place was known from the Early Christian period with the remains of a three-nave basilica that was discovered in its close proximity. During the founding of the autocephalous Serbian archbishopric in 1219, the seat of the sixth (Hvostanska), of the seven Serbian bishoprics, was located here. At that time the Monastery was erected. In the 14th century it became a metropolitan archdiocese. After 1690 (the First Great Migration of the Serbs) this place was abandoned and destroyed. The material from the Monastery was used in the construction of mosques and other buildings.
The building was erected following the plan of the Žiča Monastery, probably around 1220. It was a single nave edifice with three bays and a dome, an apse that was semicircular on the inside and rectangular on the outside and a narthex with two bays. In 1230 (when the temple was about to become a cathedral seat of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Hvosno), following the ground plan of the Žiča Monastery, two paracclesia were added on the Northern and Southern sides of the narthex, two towers with chapels (each had an apse) and exonarthex with six bays. Some researchers believe there was a catechumeneon at the upper floor of the exonarthex. The Church is in compliance with the Raška architecture.
In the Monastery researchers found remains of the dwelling-house, fortifications, nearby cemetery and a cast bell in which two shrouds were hidden (one from the 14th century and the other from the 16th century, the work of the famous artist monk Longin). Both are being kept in the treasury of the Patriarchate of Peć (Peć Monastery).
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Mušutišta, the Church of the Mother of God (Hodegetria)
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The church of the Virgin Hodegetria near the village Mušutišta was erected in 1314/1315 as the endowment of the grand kaznac Jovan Dragoslav, his wife Jelena, his son Staniša and his daughter Annna (Poče se: i sьzda se: božьstvьni, i vsečstnii hramь prěčistie vladičice naše bogorodice ōdigitrie: is temelna va dan prěvisokago kralě Uroša sь trudomь i sь pospešeniemь Iōvana velikago kaznca Dragoslava sь Elenomь sь podružjemь svoimь i Stanišomь synomь si i sь Anomь dьšteriju si vь lěto 6823 endikta 20). The Serbian emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan donated the church of the Virgin Hodegetria near the village of Mušutišta to the to the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Prizren (Selo M’šutišta i sь crьkvami Svetomь Bogorodicomь i Svetymь Symeōnomь, sь zemlomь, i s vinogrady, i sь vokijemь, i črьnicami, i sь mliny).
It was a Church of a developed cross-in-square plan with a dome built in alternating rows of stone and brick (with the recognizable features of the ecclesiastical architecture of Thessaloniki), and was fresco decorated. Unfortunately, the Church was completely ruined by Albanian extremists in 1999.
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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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Peć, the Patriarchate
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The Patriarchate of Peć is situated in the city of Peć in Kosovo. It was built in the 13th and 14th centuries by Serbian Archbishops, starting Archbishop Arsenije Sremac, St. Sava's successor on the throne of Serbian Church.
It consists of three Churches dedicated to the Holy Apostles, Saint Demetrius and Virgin Hodeghetria. The narthex was added by Archbishop Danilo II around 1330 and served as an ante-Church to the three adjecent temples. Some frescoes of the narthex have remained; they were mostly restored in the 16th century (after the renewal of the Patriarchate).
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Prizren, Church of the Mother of God of Ljeviša
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The Church of the Mother of God of Ljeviša (Virgin Eleousa) is dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. It is situated in the city of Prizren and was built by King Milutin 1307-1313 on the ground of an earlier three-nave basilica, probably from the 9th or the 10th century (at the latest).
Its is said that St. Sava visited Prizern at the beginning of the 13th century, when the first Serbia bishop of the city was ordained. It was the first restoration of the edifice as evidences by the inscriptions on the frescoes in the South aisle dated in 1220.
In the 14th century the edifice was remodeled and turned into a building with five domes, three-partite apses which are semicircular on the inside and three-sided on the outside and an exonarthex with two floors and a bell-tower.
According to the inscription on the exonarthex we know that the reconstruction of the Church was managed by masters Nikola (architecture) and Michael Astrapas (painting).
The Church was fresco-painted in the 13th century and later in the 14th by the hand of Michael Astrapas and his assistants.
In 1346, after the proclamation of the Serbian Patriarchate this Church was elevated to the rank of metropolitanate. In the 15th century Prizren was occupied by the Turks. In the 18th century it was turned into a mosque. In 2006 the Church was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of an ensemble of medieval monuments in Kosovo.
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Trepča, Saxon Church
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The Saxon Church is situated in Stari Trg, near Trepča (near Kosovska Mitrovica). The earliest written historical source mentioning the existence of the Catholic Church in Trepča is a letter from Pope Benedict IX to Archbishop Marin of Bar, written in 1303. Therefore, we know that the Church was built before 1303 and was initially dedicated to the Holy Virgin. It is recorded that the body of King Milutin was transferred to this Church from his mausoleum (the Church of St. Stephen in Banjska) when the Turks invaded, and later moved to Bulgaria (Sofia).
As name suggests the Saxon Church was erected thanks to German miners, referred to as the Saxons in Serbian sources. In Trepča lived a strong colony from Dubrovnik, and in ecclesiastical terms Trepča was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Kotor.
Its a three-aisle, domed, basilica with three semicircular apses, modelled after the cathedrals of Kotor (Church of St. Tryphon) and Dubrovnik (Romanesque cathedral). Today is in ruins, with only an Eastern wall with three apses remaining (with still visible gothic windows). The Church was fresco painted in Byzantine iconography and style.
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