Gračanica Monastery

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Gračanica
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem

Gracanica1.jpg
Exterior view of the monastery church
National territory: KosovoKosovo Kosovo

(On the territory of Kosovo, listed under Serbia by UNESCO .)

Type: Culture
Criteria : ii, iii, iv
Reference No .: 724
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 2006  (session 30)

The monastery Gracanica ( Serbian - Cyrillic Манастир Грачаница , Albanian  Manastiri i Graçanicës ) is one of the Dormition of the Mother of God dedicated to Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo, which the Serbian King Uroš II Milutin. Was founded 1321st Due to its unique architecture in medieval Serbian art history and its location on the Blackbird Field , it is one of the most famous monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The monastery church is located in the village of the same name Gračanica , which is near Lipjan , around ten kilometers southeast of Pristina .

The cross- domed church with five domes is an outstanding sacred building of the Palaiological Renaissance and also one of the most famous buildings of Byzantine art . The building in the style of the so-called “ Macedonian School ” surpasses its assumed models (especially the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki ) in the delicacy of its execution, the formal integration of its components and the resulting increased accentuation of the vertical. The interior frescoes, executed in courtly style, are the most important of the first half of the 14th century in Serbia.

The formal design of Gračanica with its rhythmic silhouette and the wonderfully elongated tambours, which accentuate the central dome in a pyramid shape, became the model for a large number of sacred buildings as a building that best reflects the national architecture of Serbian art. It has been inscribed in the National Register of the Republic of Serbia in UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

history

Stefan Uroš II. Milutin, portrait of the founder around 1320

After the marriage of the Byzantine princess and daughter of Emperor Andronikos II. Simonida with the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II. Milutin in 1299, he began to underline his further ambitions through the connection to the Byzantine imperial family through a generous patronage of foundations and art gifts and openly with his father-in-law Emperor of Byzantium to compete. In addition to Bogorodica Ljeviška , the artistically most ambitious building of the period on the Balkan peninsula, the Gračanica monastery church, is being built. Completed in 1311, the construction plan and the formal integration of the individual parts surpasses the models at the same time in Thessaloniki , in particular the Monastery of the Holy Apostles ( Hagia Apostoloi ) built between 1311 and 1314 . The church stands on the site of a church consecrated to the Blessed Virgin in the 13th century, which in turn was built on the foundations of a 6th century basilica. Originally the church was without an exonarthex , this was only added in the late 14th century and completely rebuilt in 1383 due to damage during the first Turkish invasions (1379-1383).

Gračanica was an important cultural center under the Turkish rule. At the time of Metropolitan Nikanor (1528–1555), several icons were painted for the altar. By installing a book press , numerous books were printed in the monastery. The Royal Gate was commissioned in 1564 by Metropolitan Dionisije, whose death is depicted in a fresco in the narthex. A general renovation of the church took place under Patriarch Makarije Sokolović. All openings of the exonarthex were walled up and decorated with frescoes. The lead roof was installed under Patriarch Pajsije and in 1620 the large cross of the iconostasis was added. The monastery suffered new destruction at the end of the 17th century. The Turks removed the lead cross from the church, all floor coverings and stole the objects from the treasury.

architecture

Gračanica Monastery is a major work of paleological five- domed churches. It surpasses the Byzantine originals in the complexity of its architectural execution, which creates a nervous tension through the surprising dynamics of vertical movements, from semi-arches and pointed arches to narrow, elongated drums and high, stepped domes. As a cross-domed church , the scheme basically follows the Byzantine tradition, but as a late work of the Palaiological Renaissance it is interested in new architectural solutions.

Architectural importance

Five - domed
cross- domed church of the Gračanica Monastery

Considered by critics to be an exaggeration of the Byzantine tradition, the Gračanica monastery church can be seen as a successful model of a new architectural idea. Gračanica's outstanding artistic composition also makes this monastery the main work of the Serbian-Byzantine style . It did not find imitations again until the 20th century (e.g. Church of St. Mark in Belgrade ). The church is built in the form of a double inscribed cross. The interior creates a vertical silhouette and raises the central dome in steps above the structure. The dome rests on four pillars. Between the spaces of the inscribed crosses sit four smaller domes, which additionally accentuate the structure. The three-sided apse with the larger central apse characterize the sanctuary. Between the naos and the narthex are pillars that set off the higher catholicon. The church is built in alternating layers of brick and mortar. The exonarthex from the end of the 14th century had double arcades that were later walled up.

Frescoes

"Vine of the Nemanjids", detail with the central figure of Milutin.

The high quality of the interior frescoes executed by the Greek fresco painters Michael Astrapas and Eustychios underlines the artistic value of the monastery, which can probably be considered the main work of the Palaeological Renaissance as a whole. There are three layers of paint in the church. The oldest are from the first phase of construction of the church and are in the naos, the later frescoes are in the narthex. The frescoes were created between 1321 and 1322 and are well preserved. The compositions of the naos show scenes from the life of Jesus and the church calendar.

The main frescoes in Gračanica show the liturgical year, the passion of Christ and the miracles of Christ. In the narthex are portraits of the founder Stefan Uroš II. Milutin and Queen Simonidas as well as Queen Hélène d'Anjou (the king's mother) as nuns and King Milutin as a monk. Of particular importance is the representation of the genealogy of the Nemanjids ("vine of the Nemanjids"), the first ever (more are in Visoki Decani and in the Patriarchal Monastery of Pec). Another well-known representation in the narthex is the large-format representation of the Last Judgment . The representation from the life of St. Nikolaus von Myra are in the northern Parekklesion, the walls in the southern show scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ and Mary.

Two fresco compositions by Gračanica are among the most remarkable compositions of Southeast and Eastern European medieval fresco painting. These are compositions to legitimize the rule of divine grace that by far surpass all western examples of the Middle Ages. On the one hand, it is the representation of the " vine of the Nemanjids ", as a political replication of the Jesse root , the monumental composition of the dynastic vine showed the subjects an order of the Christian world in the self-understanding of the Serbian kingdom. On the other hand, there is the large vertical coronation composition, which extends from the cross vault almost to the church floor. The “Vine of the Nemanjids” is grouped as an overall composition around the founder King Milutin and unsurpassed in complexity in Serbian fresco art of the Middle Ages. In the vertical coronation scene, the composition runs from the depiction of the souls in God's hand over a ray of divine grace down to Christ Pantocrator , then to a blessing Christ and over two messenger angels to Milutin and Simonida , on whom the “crowns of life” are placed.

World Heritage

As a symbol of Serbianism in Kosovo , Gračanica plays an important role in the cultural self-image of the Serbs. Gračanica was founded by King Stefan Uroš II Milutin . In July 2006, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List . At the same time, due to the legally unclear situation and the difficult security situation between Serbia and Kosovo, it was entered on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger.

photos

literature

Web links

Commons : Gračanica Monastery  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. [1]
  2. Tanja Damljanović 2005: Fighting the St. Sava: Public Reaction to the Competition for the largest Cathedral in Belgrade. Centropa, 5/2: 125-135
  3. ^ Frank Kämper : Bildkunde Südosteuropas - An insight. (PDF)

Coordinates: 42 ° 35 ′ 54 ″  N , 21 ° 11 ′ 36 ″  E