Church of the Cremation of the Relics of St. Sava (Kragujevac)

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The Church of the Cremation of the Relics of St. Sava in Kragujevac

The Church of the Burning of the Relics of St. Sava ( Serbian : Црква спаљивања моштију светог Саве, Crkva spaljivanja moštiju svetog Save) is a Serbian Orthodox church in the Serbian city ​​of Kragujevac .

It was built from 1990 to 2010. The church building is dedicated to the event when the Ottomans under Sinan Pasha demonstratively burned the relics of the Serbian national saint , the first archbishop and the enlightener of the Serbian people, Sava of Serbia on the Vračar hill in Belgrade .

It serves as a memorial church for another tragic event in Serbian history when thousands of residents of the cities of Kragujevac and Kraljevo were murdered by the German armed forces during the Second World War . These new martyrs were canonized (canonized) by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

It is the parish church of the parishes Aerodrom I to IV and the parish of the same name in the Deanery Kragujevac, the eparchy Šumadija of the Serbian Orthodox Church .

location

The church is located in the Aerodrom district north of Kragujevac city center on Vladimira Rolovića Street . Next to the church are the Kragujevac Theological Faculty, dedicated to the Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom , the Zlatousti radio station, a sports hall and the district's medical ambulance. Not far from the church there is a small chapel for lighting candles with a church shop.

The church from the southeast, photographed from Svetogorska ulica

History and architecture

Construction of the church began on August 28, 1990 with the consecration of the church foundations by the then bishop of the eparchy, Sava (Vuković) . The church was built in the traditional Serbian-Byzantine style according to a design by the Kragujevac architect Radoslav Prokić .

The plan of the church is a Greek cross , with a semicircular altar - apse in the east and a central octagonal round dome over the center of the nave , which inside depicts the fresco of Jesus Christ , the Pantocrator and four smaller domes, each at the side corners of the Church.

In the west rises a high four-tier church tower. Several smaller cones on the east side and in the middle of the nave are also part of the overall architectural ensemble.

View of the church with the nearby chapel and surroundings

In its entire massive Byzantine appearance, the church seems to stretch upwards. The exterior decoration of the church, which consists of simple plastic rosettes and blind arcades (which act as a separator between the stone facade and the one-piece windows), give the church a certain lightness. The windows are decorated with round openings and a red exterior color around them. The red corresponds to the outer facade of the main church, the famous Žiča Monastery . In the west, above the main entrance to the church, there is an icon of St. Sava.

The painting of the frescoes in the traditional Byzantine manner of the church began on January 27, 2000 during the term of office of Bishop Sava (Vuković), which has not yet been fully completed. Typical for Orthodox church buildings, it has a (wooden) iconostasis with icons .

On October 24, 2010 after the construction work was completed, the church was inaugurated by the Serbian Patriarch of His Holiness Irinej (Gavrilović) , with the assistance of the then Bishop of the Eparchy Žiča Hrizostom (Stolić) and the current Bishop of the Eparchy Šumadija Jovan (Mladenović) . The church was built through generous donations from the population.

From September 8, 2001 to September 27 of the same year (the holiday of the Exaltation of the Cross ), solemn evening services, so-called Akatiste, were held every evening by order of Bishop Jovan (Mladenović). The reason for this was that the Christ crucifixion icon was crying in the church.

gallery

  • View of the church from the east (chancel)

  • Fresco painting in the church

  • Fresco of the Holy New Martyrs of Kragujevac

  • View of the iconostasis

  • The frescoed interior

  • The Theological Faculty of St. John Chrysostom

  • View of the church tower and the church entrance from the west

supporting documents

Coordinates: 44 ° 1 ′ 48.9 ″  N , 20 ° 54 ′ 43.1 ″  E