T he rst park adorned with replicas of Serbia’s twelve most spiritually and culturally valuable monasteries – from Gračanica and Studenica, to Ravanica and the Patriarchate of Peć, but also Mileševa, Krušedol, Visoki Dečani, Tronoša, Lazarica, Žiča and Pavlovac – opened in the former Serbian capital city of Kruševac at the end of June this year. Thus, as the result of a private initiative and support from institutions and prominent public gures, a comprehensive programme to promote Serbian cultural heritage, both do- mestically and internationally, was launched with the aim of ensuring our most valuable cultural monuments remain in sight of Serbian citizens today, when some of these gems are practically inaccessible, and deservedly draw- ing the attention of the entire civilised world to them, through the organising of exhibitions in major foreign centres. Showing that things are progressing well is the fact that models of the Gračanica and Ra- vanica monasteries were recently mounted in front of the Patriarchate of the Serbian Ortho- dox Church in Belgrade, while a slightly small- er model of Gračanica is set, in the days ahead, to nd its permanent place within the building of the UN Secretariat in New York. In conversation with Dr. Boris Stajkovac, Chairman of the CENET Board of Directors, we discovered that the idea for this excellent pro- ject had been smouldering for many years. In- itially, the founders of what would go on to become a formal organisation were extreme- ly impressed by attractive mini-parks in Brus- sels, Istanbul, Hamburg and some other Euro- pean cities, where the sense of their existence mostly concludes in the sphere of entertain- ment and tourist attractions, but they then re- alised that such parks could have a far more comprehensive role in Serbia. “We will send our monasteries to all conti- nents. To adorn the yards of our churches and remind us of who and what we are. But that will also be an opportunity for our citizens and our children to better acquaint themselves with these holy sites that are now dicult to visit in Kosovo. To see and remember them; to under- stand what they mean to us. In a year in which we are celebrating the 800th anniversary of our Church, we are striving to provide our con- tribution in this unique way,” says Stajkovac. “All of these models of monasteries are pro- duced according to the designs of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia, and are produced by hand, through the shaping of models in clay and then the form- ing of moulds using the latest materials, which makes it possible for us to create multiple ex- amples (at a scale of 1:78), so they can also be very attractive and valuable gifts of our coun- try to other cities and capitals. CENET’s min- iature three-dimensional replicas produce an
Ravanica, zadužbina Kneza Lazara Ravanica, an endowment of Prince Lazar
stika, nego od kompozitnih betona, i jer im je unutrašnja konstrukcija od čelika, umesto od aluminijuma. To ih čini prepoznatljivim i na dodir, u šta ćete, nadamo se, moći da se i sami uverite kada u Beogradu bude otvoren Park srpskih svetinja i kul- turne baštine sa nekoliko desetina modela manastira i crkava. Tako će svi srpski najveći spome- nici biti sagrađeni još jednom kao za 21. vek primereni čuvari i obnovite- lji nacionalnog pamćenja i putokazi ka onim veličanstvenim originalnim biserima iz riznice kulturnog blaga naše zemlje.
Pećka patrijaršija, mauzolej patrijarha Patriarchate of Peć, Mausoleum of patriarchs
Gračanica kralja Milutina
King Milutin’s Gračanica
impression of almost supernatural authentici- ty, and that’s because they are not made from special plastics, but rather from composite con- crete, and because their internal construction is made of steel instead of aluminium. This also makes them recognisable to the touch, which we hope you will be aable to see for yourself when the“Park of Serbian Holy Sites and Cultur- al Heritage”, featuring several dozen models of monasteries and churches, opens in Belgrade.” All of Serbia’s greatest monuments will, thus, be built once again, as 21st century ex- emplary guardians and restorers of national memory, and as signposts directing towards those magni cent original gems from the treas- ury of Serbia’s cultural treasures.
Boris Stajkovac i vladika kruševački David Boris
Stajkovac and Bishop David of Kruševac
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