Visoki Dečani

Visoki Dečani
Високи Дечани

Visoki Dečani church
Monastery information
Order Serbian Orthodox
Established 1327
Diocese Eparchy of Raška and Prizren
People
Founder(s) King Stefan Dečanski
Important associated figures Stefan Dečanski, Stefan Dušan
Architecture
Style Serbo-Byzantine style
Site
Location Dečani, Kosovo[lower-alpha 1]
Public access yes
Official name Medieval Monuments in Kosovo
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii, iv
Designated 2004 (28th session)
Reference no. 724
State Party  Serbia
Region Europe and North America
Official name Манастир Дечани
Type Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance
Designated 1947
Reference no. СК 1368[1]

Visoki Dečani (Serbian Cyrillic: Високи Дечани, Albanian: Manastiri i Deçanit) is a major Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery located in Dečani, Kosovo[lower-alpha 1].

History

The Visoki Dečani monastery is located by the Dečanska Bistrica river gorge at the foot of the Prokletije Mountains, in Metohija.[2][3] It is located about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the town of Dečani.[4] The monastery is owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dečani Monastery Administration; it is managed by the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren. The monastery has been under the legal protection of Serbia since 1947.[2]

Construction

Construction began during the reign of Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski in 1327 and the original founding charter from 1330 has been preserved.[5] Dečanski's son, Stefan Dušan, seized the Serbian throne in 1331 and had his father strangled to death in the Zvečan Fortress shortly afterwards. Dečanski was buried in the still incomplete Visoki Dečani monastery in 1331 and its construction was continued by Dušan.[6] The monastery's main architect was Fra Vita, a Franciscan monk from the Montenegrin coastal town of Kotor.[4][6] Construction of the monastery lasted for a total of 8 years, and ended in 1335. The wooden throne of the hegumen was finished at around this time, and the church interior was decorated. Dečanski's carved wooden sarcophagus was finished in 1340.[5]

15th–19th century

Bulgarian writer Gregory Tsamblak, author of The Life of Stefan Dečanski, was the head (hegoumenos) of the monastery at the beginning of the 15th century. The painter-monk Longin spent two decades in the monastery during the second half of the 16th century and created 15 icons with depictions of the Great Feast and hermits, as well as his most celebrated work, the icon of Stefan Uroš. In the late 17th century, the Turks plundered the monastery, but inflicted no serious damage.[5]

20th and 21st century

During World War I, the monastery's treasures were plundered by the Austro-Hungarian Army, which occupied Serbia between 1915 and 1918.[7] The monastery fell within the territory of the Italian-ruled Albanian Kingdom during World War II, and was targeted for destruction by the Albanian nationalist Balli Kombëtar and Italian fascist blackshirts in mid-1941. The Royal Italian Army responded by sending a group of soldiers to help protect the monastery from attack.[8][9]

The monastic treasure was exhibited in the rebuilt medieval refectory in 1987.[2] The monastery's monks sheltered refugees of all ethnicities during the Kosovo War, which lasted from March 1998 to June 1999.[3] On 7 May 1998, the corpses of two elderly Albanians were found 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the monastery. They were reportedly killed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for collaborating with Serb forces. The KLA staged an attack not far from the monastery on 8 May, killing one person and wounding four others. That evening, Deçan's 300 remaining Serbs came to the monastery to seek shelter.[10] The Albanian civilians seeking refuge in the monastery returned to their homes following the withdrawal of Serb military personnel from Kosovo in June 1999. An Italian unit of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) was subsequently assigned to guard the monastery, which was attacked on several occasions.[9] Dozens of Romanis sought sanctuary in the monastery over the next several months, fearing retaliatory attacks by their Albanian neighbours, who accused them of collaborating with the Serbs and looting Albanian homes.[11]

During violent unrest in Kosovo on 17 March 2004, KFOR defended the monastery from an Albanian mob trying to throw molotov cocktails at it. Several Albanians were shot and wounded in the clash.[12] On 2 July 2004, the monastery was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[4] UNESCO cited it as "an irreplaceable treasure, a place where traditions of Romanesque architecture meet artistic patterns of the Byzantine world."[3] The monastery, along with all other Serbian Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, was added to the UNESCO list of endangered World Heritage sites in 2006.[5] Suspected Kosovo Albanian insurgents hurtled hand grenades at the monastery on 30 March 2007, but caused little damage. In recent years, the situation around the monastery has stabilized and it has reopened to visitors.[3] Serbian President Boris Tadić attended a service at the monastery in April 2009.[13] U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited the monastery the following month.[14]

Architectural features

The church has five-nave naos, a three-part iconostasis, and a three-nave parvise. With a dome, it is 30 m high. Its outer walls are done in alternate layers of white and pink marble. The portals, windows, consoles, and capitals are richly decorated. Christ the Judge is shown surrounded by angels in the western part of the Church. Its twenty major cycles of fresco murals represent the largest preserved gallery of Serbian medieval art, featuring over 1000 compositions and several thousand portraits.

Gallery

In popular culture

Other burials

See also

Annotations

  1. 1 2 Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has been recognised as an independent state by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

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