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Ratac, Church A
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Church A is situated in Ratac between the cities of Sutomore and Bar. It belongs to a monastery complex. The church was built in the second half of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century. It is a single nave edifice with a semicircular apse on its Eastern end. The church has a ground-level crypt modelled according to the Early Christian, two-storey mausoleums. The remains of plaster indicate that the church was fresco decorated. Remnants of the mosaic allude to the period between the 4th and the 6th century.
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Ratac, Church C (Bogorodica Ratačka)
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The Benedictine monastery complex of St. Mary is situated on the Ratac peninsula between Sutomore and Bar. Between the 9th and the 11th century a Benedictine monastery was founded, initially dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael and later to the Holy Mother of God, also known by the name Bogorodica Ratačka (Mother of God from Ratac). The oldest church is from the 11th century and is designated as Church C. The peculiarity of this single-nave building with a dome are the four bays, one of which in the West had probably the function of a narthex. This church is mentioned in the Kotor Charter by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin (reigned 1282-1321) in 1319, confirming the charter by his mother the Serbian Queen Jelena Anžujska (ca. 1230-1314) from 1305 and indicating that the church was dedicated to the Mother of God. A Latin inscription from September 1347 to the left of the Southern entrance to the Church C mentions the monastery's abbot Paulo Rugerii (Marković 2004, 201).
The monastery complex consisted of several buildings. Among them three churches stand out. During the 14th and 15th centuries other buildings and fortifications were added to the monastery, especially when there was a danger from the Ottomans. The monastery and its buildings were looted and demolished by the Ottomans in the 16th century. The Venetians turned it into a military fortress, which was later taken over by the Ottomans. The walls of the monastery were especially devastated in the Second World War (1941-1945), where the occupying forces installed artillery and built bunkers.
(KJ TDR., 102 nap 205 - Abbas de S. Micaele (!) de Reteza; SN ZSp., 604 - u Rьtьčьka, svetoi Bogorodici Rьtьčьskoi).
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Skadar, Monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God of Krajina
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The Monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God of Krajina ("Craini"), with its main church dedicated to the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, was built near the South-Western shore of Lake Skadar. As most researchers believe, its ktetor was the Serbian Prince Jovan Vladimir (reigned 990-1016), whose remains were transferred here not long after he was murdered in 1016 in Prespa. Next to him his wife Kosara was buried. The church was renewed and enlarged several times, but the original plan is still visible. It is a single nave edifice with semicircular conchae on its Southern, Eastern and Northern sides, making it a trefoil building, similar to the Church of St. John the Baptist in Zaton on the River Lim, built at approximately the same time, and the Church of St. Panteleimon in Ohrid (the burial church of St. Kliment of Ohrid), built during the time of Tsar Samuel's domination in the Balkans. The Church of the Most Pure Mother of God of Krajina was renewed at the end of the 14th century, probably at the time when the Metropolitan see of Zeta was transferred. It is believed that Balša III Djurdjević (reigned 1403-1421), the ruler of Zeta, was responsible for its renovation. Today, only fragments of fresco decoration indicate that the church was once embellished. (FŠ LPD., 331 - in ecclesia sancta Mariae, in loco qui dicitur Craini).
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Stari Bar, Church of St. George (St. Theodore)
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The Church of St. George is situated in the old town of Bar (Stari Bar) on an elevation called Londža. Beneath the remains of the Romanesque Church of St. George (dated to the 12th century) the remains of an older church, dedicated to St. Theodore, were discovered (probably built in the 5th or 6th century). When the Church of St. Theodore was erected in Stari Bar, a mosaic floor from the triconchos edifice in Novi Bar, which had already been in ruins at that time, was transferred. The older church of St. Theodore was probably ruined in a fire, and a new edifice honoring St. George was erected by Archbishop George of Bar (as evidenced by a tombstone) in the 12th century, thus becoming the see of the Archbishopric of Bar. Both churches were three nave basilicas. The Church of St. George had three apses. Remains of vaults indicate gothic elements. Fragments of stone furnishing and decoration belonging to the altar screen have been found. In 1125, King Grubeša of Zeta (reigned ca. 1118- ca. 1125) was buried in the church. High dignitaries of the Archbishopric of Bar were also buried there, e.g. Bishop Jovan from the time of Prince Vladimir and the Archbishops George, Peter and Sergius, who lived in the period from the 11th to the 12th centuries. The church was turned into a mosque in the 16th century, and in 1881 the church was completely destroyed by a gunpowder explosion or, as some indicate, by lightning (since the church served as an ammunition depot).
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