Church of St. Sava and Simeon (Srpski Itebej)

The Church of St. Sava and Simeon in Srpski Itebej

The Church of St. Sava and Simeon. ( Serbian :. Црква Св Саве и Симеона, . Crkva Sv Save i Simeona ) in Srpski Itebej , a village in the Opština Žitište in Central Banat District , is a Serbian Orthodox parish church in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina .

It was built from 1765 to 1769. The church is dedicated to the Serbian national saint Sava of Serbia and his father Stefan Nemanja , also known as St. Simeon Mirotočivi .

It is the parish church of the parishes Srpski Itebej I, II and III, in the deanery Žitište , the eparchy Banat of the Serbian Orthodox Church . The Church of St. Sava and Simeon is a state-protected cultural monument.

location

View of the church from the south

The church stands in the northern center of the village at Trg Slobode 10 (Freiheitsplatz 10) in the middle of a small park. Srpski Itebej is located near the bank of the Begej River .

The village and thus also the church are close to the border with Romania . Not far from the church is an Orthodox wayside cross and the Roman Catholic Maria-Liberator-of-the-Slaves-Church of the place.

History and architecture

Look at the church tower

The Church of St. Sava and Simeon was built from 1765 to 1769 in the Baroque style. The church is one of the oldest church buildings in the Banat and thus in the whole of Vojvodina. The oldest parish register dates from 1745. The church was built in a rectangular floor plan, with a semicircular apse in the east and a church tower on the west side. Entrances to the church are on the west, north and south sides.

The roof of the church was covered with colorful flat tiles, in a shape reminiscent of glass tiles. The high plinth and the alternating windows and arched niches give the church the appearance from the outside of a two-story building, which it actually is with the choir on the west side.

The facades are decorated with decorative plastic mortar and decorations in the shape of a wreath. The decorative elements on the capitals of the arches around the windows are particularly worth seeing . The church is decorated with elements from the baroque and classicism .

The facade of the church is also of historical value, as it contains old tombstones, the inscriptions of which give information about the deceased and thus serve for the genealogy of the local population.

The interior of the church is also worth seeing. The semicircular apse with two pilasters resting on a ribbed vault gives the impression that the altar ends in a triumphal arch.

Iconostasis and icons

Interior with imposing iconostasis and old frescoes

The icons on the iconostasis were painted by Dimitrije Popović from Zrenjanin from 1777 to 1779, while the baroque carvings were made in the workshop of Aksentije Marković . In 1884 the icons were painted over by Dimitrije Popović. The iconographic scenes and the frescoes of the church, also painted by Dimitrije Popović, show the life and work of the Serbian saints. Iconostasis is the work of the leading masters of the time in the whole Banat. Other icons of the church were made in the middle of the 18th century.

Renovations

The church was renovated in 1831, 1884, 1938, 2011 to 2013 and 2014. When the church was renovated in 1938, two columns with Corinthian capitals were added to the choir to give it better support. From October to November 2011, the facade and the steeple of the church were renovated. According to the priest of the Church Savo Majstorović, the main part of the cost of renovating the church of 5 million Serbian dinars was borne by the Ministry of Religions of Serbia, but also by other institutions.

The church was also restored in June 2014. During the restoration, the roof was renewed, the facade of the nave was repainted and the church tower was given a new copper cap and the cross on the top of the church tower was newly gilded. The restoration was financed by the Ministry of Culture and Religion of Serbia and the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Parish of Srpski Itebej. The priest of the church is Savo Majstorović .

Serbian Orthodox chapels in Srpski Itebej

In addition to the church, there are also two Serbian Orthodox chapels in the village. The small chapel of St. Great Martyr George and the chapel of St. Venerable Mother Petka Paraskeva from 1912 were built in the Serbian Orthodox village cemetery between 1923 and 1925 .