Whether it is a spring day or an autumn day, whether it is sunny or raining, on the bend in the Ibar main road at the Kralje- vo exit towards Raška, the fus- cous red walls of the Žiča mo- nastery suddenly appear in the distance like the blood-stained sun, and my body is engulfed from head to toe by waves of joy. The domes and the walls of Žiča brighten up a rainy day for me and make a sunny one even sunnier. Also, it seems to me, in the early evening hours, that night never falls here. If it does fall, then it is a star-filled night. I can tell you that every time I come here, Žiča gladdens my heart, even though St. Sava insi-
stretching its limbs southwar- ds towards Kosovo and westwar- ds towards Zahumlje and Herze- govina. The building was started by Stefan Nemanjić, the son of Stevan Nemanja, but he was hel- ped in this by his brother Sava, the future first Serbian archbis- hop. The monastery was comple- ted in 1217, before Sava returned to the Hilandar monastery. It is probable that in 1221 Stefan Ne- manjić was crowned in the mo- nastery as the first Serbian king (which is why he is known as Pr- vovenčani or the First-crowned) and later, Radoslav, Vladislav, Uroš, Dragutin and Milutin – all from the house of Nemanjić – were crowned in the same place. It was here also that Milan Obre- nović was crowned king in 1882. Žiča was the first seat of the Ser- bian archbishopric, headed by St. Sava. Žiča, like the majority of old monasteries, has traces of al- most every century from its fo- undation right up to the present day. The Žiča we see today is the Žiča of Sava Nemanjić, but also the Žiča of King Milutin; it is the Žiča of the patriarchs of Peć but also that of Bishop Nikolaj Veli- mirović. In fact it could be des- cribed as a sort of palimpsest. It has been called “The gre- at church“ and “The mother of many churches“. From ancient chronicles of Žiča one gets the impressi- on that the monastery represen- ted some kind of well-organized farmstead or large cooperati- ve, in which commoners, ari- stocrats, monks and church di- gnitaries all lived together in harmony. Today, on the west side, towards the Ibar, the area that was once the monastery farmstead can still be found. There I found various workers – bricklayers, painters, gardeners, mowers... I also photographed a distin- ct species of poultry, called a gu- inea fowl. Life in Žiča was buzzing just like in a beehive…
ENTERING A HEAVENLY TEMPLE Žiča frescoes make it very clear that we are entering a church that is above all dedicated to faith. Nowhere else will you find paintings of bishops, hermits, prophets and saints like those in Žiča. The message of the- se frescoes, both in the sense of what they are saying and how they have been painted, is that one is en- tering a temple of God, or, if you prefer, a heavenly temple, where one arrives only through great achieve- ment and martyrdom. It was first and foremost St. Sava who stood behind this message, having played a very significant role in the founding of the monastery. As with Studenica, he was its conceptual founder.
sted that the façade of the mo- nastery is coloured red from the blood of the Serbian martyrs who died for the Christian faith. Žiča is situated on the right side of the Ibar, about ten kilo- metres before this mountain ri- ver flows into the Morava. Here, in the fields around Mataruš- ka Spa, the Ibar, which rises so- mewhere in the arboreal bosom of Mount Hajla, above the town of Rožaj, calms down at this time of year, after the snow has mel- ted, its turbid and high waters rolling lazily along. There is a folk poem containing the words: “Stay, stay, O waters of the Ibar,“ and there, just before Kraljevo, the fast and insubordinate Ibar slows down and all but stops. The building of Žiča was be- gun in 1206, ten years after the completion of the nearby Stu- denica monastery. Presumably it was the first step in extending the Serbian state northwar- ds – on the whole it had been
Uspenje Bogorodice The Assumption of the Virgin
Car Konstantin i carica Jelena, kapela u kuli Constantine and Helen, chapel in the tower
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