Banjska Monastery

The Banjska Monastery ( Serbian Манастир Бањска Manastir Banjska ; Albanian Manstiri i Banjskës ) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery that was originally built between 1313 and 1317 by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin .

The monastery is located in the Zvečan municipality in Kosovo by the Banjska river . The monastery was built as the final resting place for the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin. He was buried there after his death in 1321. When the Ottomans attacked Serbia in 1389, his body was reburied. The monastery was destroyed by the Ottomans. They built a military camp and a small mosque there . The Ottomans were not expelled until 1912. In 1938 the catholicon of the monastery was partially restored. Further conservation and archaeological work was carried out after the Second World War and in 1990 a renovation of the monastery complex began. The restored monastery was re-inaugurated on August 15, 2004.

architecture

Although the Macedonian School prevailed in architecture under Milutin and the Milutin foundations Gračanica , Bogorodica Ljeviška and the royal church in Studenica Monastery were exemplary buildings for the further architectural development of sacred buildings in Serbia, Milutin chose a building in the Rasc style for his tomb . The choice of a historical style illustrates the strong ties to tradition within the Nemanjids , who have been citing the architectural design of the Catholic of the Studenica Monastery and the tomb of the founder of the dynasty, Stefan Nemanja , for over 150 years in the grave sites up to Stefan Dečanski . A special feature of all royal tombs of the Serbian rulers up to the 15th century can also be found in the Katholikon of Banjska, the cladding of the outer walls with marble. Marble cladding was reserved for royal mausoleums, which especially stands out in Banjska through the use of different colored marbles.

In addition to the central crossing dome , the monastery church originally had two towers above the exonarthex . The building sculpture of the Catholic was important as the model for the later sculptures in the Visoki Dečani Monastery , Sv. Arhangeli as well as for the decoration of the numerous buildings of the Morava School . Only one sculpture of the formerly elaborate building decoration has survived, the sculpture of Mary with Child, which was once above the portal between the narthex and the naos and was saved in the Sokolica monastery in the 16th century.

Individual evidence

^ Slobodan Curcic : Religious Settings of the Late Byzantine Sphere . In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557) . Yale University Press et al., New Haven CT 2004, ISBN 1-58839-114-0 , pp. 65-77.

↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sculpture of the Virgin and Child. Byzantine (Serbia), 1312-16. Exhibition of Byzantine art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art @1@ 2

Web links

Pages about the Banjska Monastery ( Memento from February 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Serbian)

42.971666666667 20.782777777778Coordinates: 42 ° 58 ′ 18 ″ N , 20 ° 46 ′ 58 ″ E

[1] Slobodan Curcic : Religious Settings of the Late Byzantine Sphere . In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557) . Yale University Press et al., New Haven CT 2004, ISBN 1-58839-114-0 , pp. 65-77.