Manasija Monastery
| Manasija Manastir Monastery Manasija Manastir Resava |
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|---|---|
 Exterior view of the Manasija monastery |
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| Data | |
| place | Near Jagodina and Despotovac |
| Construction year | 1407-1418 |
| height | 25 m |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 6 '3 " N , 21 ° 28' 11" E |
The mostly monastery of Manasija (however the actual name of the monastery Resava) is called fortified monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Homolje Mountains near the central Serbian cities Jagodina and Despotovac in a small side valley of the Morava . It was intended as the burial place of the Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević . After it had been assumed for a long time that he was never buried here, the remains of the despot were found during archaeological excavations in 2006 in the monastery church.
As an ensemble, Manasija forms the main work of late medieval Serbian art. In its conception as an "ideal city", it was planned in an interpretation of biblical ideas. This symbolic role as an image of the “Heavenly Jerusalem” generally determined the ideal image of late medieval Serbian monasteries and cities, which was shaped by religious thinking, the most mature variant of which was realized in Manasija.
Basic structure
The monastery is surrounded by a strong double wall with 12 towers. This defense system is considered to be the most perfect in Serbia in the Middle Ages. As the only Serbian fortress, the defense towers were equipped with small balconies, so-called machikuli . A total of 139 maschikuli were set up for the defense. The main defense tower of the complex, the large donjon , is the largest single tower of medieval Serbian defense architecture and is one of the largest defense towers on the Balkan Peninsula.
Within the umwehrten conditioning, in addition to the monumental marble church that until now the largest known public medieval buildings on the territory of Serbia, the dining rooms of the monastery find, Resava stood with the establishment of the embossed humanism called Resava Writing under Konstantin Kosten Ecki as the most important Exhibit of Serbian literary activity in the first half of the 15th century before the other Serbian monasteries and cultural centers.
The interior of the Katholikon is painted with artistically outstanding frescoes , which stylistically are among the top achievements of late Byzantine art .
The monastery is currently on UNESCO's provisional World Heritage List , and efforts are being made to include it on the World Heritage List.
Building history and chronicle
The largest and in many ways most impressive church built in Serbia before the Ottoman conquest is the Trinity Church of Manasija. The monastery with the church was founded by Stefan Lazarević, ruler of Serbia between 1389 and 1427. The church itself was completed between 1407 and 1418. It replicated the model of his father's main foundation, but Stefan Lazarević's foundation surpassed it in many different ways. Manasija, like Ravanica , was to become the mausoleum of its builder. The same construction plan was used, but Manasija became significantly larger and reached 14.5 m wide (18.5 m with the apses) and 34.5 m long.
According to Konstantin Kostenecki, the despot planned to build a magnificent building:
"He recruited the most important builders and talented fresco painters for this purpose and also looked for them on the islands"
The large, square narthex , like the one in the Ravanica monastery , was destroyed by Ottoman arson, the first of which occurred in 1439. The church had large bells, which were also lost in another pillage in 1476. Today's narthex has the same floor plan as the original, but the structure comes from a restoration in the 19th century. It is unclear whether the narthex originally had a bell tower. Only the floor in the narthex, decorated with geometric marble inlays, is still preserved today in its original form. The main part of the church building has been substantially preserved to this day in its original design.
After Manasija fell back to Đurađ Branković in 1444 , Sultan Mehmed II Fatih conquered the city in the wake of the Belgrade campaign in 1456 . After the Ottomans were repulsed at Belgrade, they also left the strategically important Manasija. On May 10, 1458 Manasija was finally handed over to Mehmed-Pasha Anđelković. During the Ottoman rule, a smaller Turkish military unit was stationed in the monastery. In 1689 the Austrians conquered the monastery complex. At that time, however, Manasija had lost all strategic importance. From 1718 to 1739 the Austrians maintained a military unit in the fortress. They built barracks for this outside the actual monastery complex.
From 1806 to 1810, the abandoned and partially dilapidated monastery was renovated for the first time under the appanage of Karađorđe . In 1832 Knez Miloš Obrenović stayed in the monastery. In 1844–1845 the dilapidated roof structure was repaired. Since the middle of the 19th century, a lively monastic life began again with the renewal of the monk cells. In 1857 the Russian tsarina Marija Alexandrovna donated a gilded gospel to the monastic community.
investment
The almost oval design of the complex has been in use as a general building concept for Serbian monasteries since the end of the 12th century. This was given a symbolic meaning here as an image of the “heavenly Jerusalem”. This established form of the monastic complex was transformed into a powerful Christian bulwark when the Manasija monastery was built, with a system of high walls and eleven massive towers. A lower wall surrounds the main wall and a wide moat lies in front of the defensive walls.
Two of the defense towers are octagonal, the rest rectangular. All but one are built open on the inside, a practice typical of Serbian medieval fortifications. The complex is entered through a single gate on the west side, which is flanked by two towers. Such a double-towered gate was unknown in the late Byzantine culture, while it was widely used in the West. The possibility that this is due to a concept of western military architecture, as well as a possible symbolic role as a city gate to the “Heavenly Jerusalem”, is the subject of research on the architectural history of Manasia.
The lower outer wall surrounds the whole complex and increases the effectiveness of the defenses. The fortress is dominated by a single massive tower, the donjon , a masterpiece of military architecture. With a footprint of 14.6 m × 14.6 m (20 m × 20 m at the sloping base), it has seven floors and is 35 m high. As such, it represents one of the largest fortified towers on the Balkan Peninsula. The penultimate floor is equipped with a system of cantilevered machiculi , another defense concept imported from the West, which was probably used here for the first time in Serbian military architecture.
Exterior view of the monastery church
Donjon of the defensive walls
Gate in the defensive wall
Defense towers
Catholicon
The elaborate five-domed church, as a three-icon complex, is a type of the Morava school . The marble cladding can echoes of earlier royal tombs of Nemanjić recognize ( Visoki Dečani , monastery Studenica ). As a direct role models of the five-domed cruciform church that have Ravanica Monastery in Ćuprija and the Archangel monastery in Prizren served.
The plan of the church repeats the scheme of Ravanica in a slightly larger variant. As in Ravanica, the central, domed room is defined by four large cylindrical columns, each of which has four narrow, diagonal columns. The dome measures 4.5 m in diameter and rises to 21 m. It underlines the prevailing desire for vertical accentuation. This is reinforced in the four corner domes, whose narrow, high silhouette underlines the external effect in the urge to climb.
The biggest surprise of the church's architectural impact is its light marble facade. It is made from finely cut stone blocks that lack any sculptural decoration. The general stylistic impression is therefore more like a Romanesque than a Byzantine church.
Frescoes
Like all Byzantine churches in general, the inner walls of the Katholikon were painted with pictorial scenes from the New and Old Testament. According to Vojislav Đurić, the frescoes are stylistically linked to contemporary work in Thessaloniki and the most likely training of the painters Manasijas in this important Byzantine art center. After Thessaloniki fell under Ottoman rule for the first time at the end of the 14th century, many artists and their painting workshops emigrated to the Serbian despotate. Here new impulses in the iconography unfolded in the new environment, those in the volume and decor of the represented figures, the harmony of the color design of the surfaces, the type of the represented saints and a general revival of the artistic heritage by perfecting and completing the art of fresco painting Manasijas gave a more poetic character.
Manasija's painting program is characterized by cool harmony and solemn depiction, especially in the aristocratic and knightly scenes. The holy warriors and the founder portrait are the most famous representations. The quality of Manasija's painting is one of the highlights of late Byzantine art and, with the simultaneous painting programs in Russia ( Andrei Rubljow ), Greece ( Mystras ) and Serbia (Kalenić), is a major work of the 15th century.
Web links
- Manasija Monastery on beo-books.de
- Description of the monastery on the pages of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Individual evidence
- ↑ Republički zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture - Beograd, Radovi u toku - Manastir Resava (Manasija)
- ↑ Svetozar Radojčić, 1971: Ideja savršenog gradu uu državi kneza Lazara i despota Stefana Lazareviča ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf, 906 kB)
- ↑ Slobodan Ćurčić, 2010: Architecture in the Balkans - from Diocletian to Süleyman the Magnificent . P. 634, Yale University Press, New Haven and London. ISBN 978-0-300-11570-3
- ↑ Vecernje Novosti, June 22, 2012 Manasija otkrivena najveca manastirska pec
- ↑ Vojislav Djurić, 1972: La peinture murale de Resava - ses origines et sa place dans la peinture Byzantine . In: Vojislav Djurić (edt.): Морвска школа и нјено доба . 277–291, Filosofski Faculty, Belgrade 1972.
- ↑ Vecernje Novosti, May 27, 2012 Unesko ceka Manasiju
- ↑ Vojislav Djurić, ibid. P. 278
- ^ Slobodan Ćurčić, p. 634
- ↑ ibid. Slobodan Ćurčić
- ^ Slobodan Ćurčić, p. 680.
- ↑ Vojislav Djurić, ibid. P. 290.
