Centralno kube je teško 14 tona, ali mu nisu potrebni stubovi na koje se oslanja The central dome weighs 14 tonnes, but it doesn’t need its supporting pillars
It is common knowledge lyricised in poems that Simonida’s eyes in the fresco were gouged out, either due to greed for di- amonds that legend has it they were made of, or due to the rage or fear of the later Ottoman occupiers, or in order to make a treatment for sight from the mortar... How- ever, more careful observers won’t over- look the fact that none of the raiders ac- tually dared to destroy that mirror of the soul. The gashes were actually made in the area of the eyebrows, and Simonida is still a witness to everything that happens un- der the vaults of the monastery. The central dome weighs 14 tonnes, but it doesn’t really need its supporting pil- lars. The support was devised to protect the building against the earthquakes that are frequent in this area. There could be no pre- ventative measures against regular floods, because Gračanica is located in a natural geological depression, on a sunken piece of land, as testified to by the curved line showing the level reached by the water. Another noticeable area of damage is not a consequence of natural forces, but rather the medieval custom of carving sig- natures into sacred buildings. However, even this doesn’t detract from the beauty and harmony of the paintings of these famous Thessaloniki painters. - Michael Astrapas and Eutychios were so engaged in the painting of temples that they would complete the main characters from biblical scenes in just a few days, then board their carriages and move on, with their assistants remaining behind to finish the background. And it is the lives of nuns that tourists don’t see. They don’t hear the sound of the klepala, a roughly carved piece of wood that is struck rhythmically with a wooden hammer to call people to worship. They don’t even hear the crowing of cockerels in the surrounding village that announce daybreak. And even if they were present at that moment, those guests from various meridians wouldn’t hear the hastened pat- ter of the feet of nuns rushing to pray, be- cause they seem not to touch the ground.
U pesmama je opevano da su Simonidine oči iskopane ili zbog pohlepe za dijamantima od kojih su po legendi bile sazdane, ili iz besa, ili straha kasnijih okupatora It is lyricised in poems that Simonida’s eyes in the fresco were gouged out, either due to greed for diamonds that legend has it they were made of, or due to the rage or fear of the later occupiers
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