Church of St. Sava (Milandža)
The Church of St. Sava ( Serbian : Црква Светог Саве, Crkva Svetog Save) is a Serbian Orthodox church in the Opština Ivanjica village of Opaljenik in the Okrug Moravica in Serbia .
The church, built in 1853, is dedicated to the Serbian national saint, the first archbishop and the illuminator of the Serbian people, Sava of Serbia . It is the parish church of the Milandža parish in the Moravica deanery , the Žiča eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church .
location
The Church of St. Sava stands on a hill surrounded by forest and meadows in the hamlet of Milandža , the village of Opaljenik with around 270 inhabitants , about 37 km southwest of the municipality capital Ivanjica .
To the south of the church is a small bell tower. Behind and partly next to the church is the Serbian Orthodox hamlet cemetery of Milandža.
history
In 1853, Bishop Joanikije (Nešković) had the Church of St. Sava and the primary school built in his birthplace for the salvation of his parents. Bishop Joanikije (Nešković) (1804–1873) was bishop of the Šabac eparchy from 1849 to 1854 and of the then Užice - Kruševac eparchy from 1854 to 1873.
The basic structure is the church, a single-nave church with a semi-rounded vault of smaller dimensions with a pronounced emphasis on the height. It is designed in the form of a trikonchos and its structure is reminiscent of the medieval Morava school , a style of the Serbian-Byzantine architectural style .
The church is covered with stone slabs. The outside facade of the church is decorated with a profiled roof wreath, under which there is a frieze made of blind arcades . It has six windows of adapted size and three doors, one each on the west, north and south sides.
The parish Milandža consists of the three villages Opaljenik with the Church of St. Sava in the hamlet Milandža, Kušići with the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Bratljevo with the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ . The current parish priest is Zoran Stevlić .