Gracanica Monastery

Gračanica Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox Monastery that was built in 1321 by the Serbian King Stefan Milutin. The monastery was dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary and was even constructed on the ruins of an older 13th-century church of the Holy Virgin.

The monastery has had a traumatic past and has undergone many restorations. It suffered damages during the Ottoman rule, the battle of Kosovo, the Great Turkish War, the second siege of Vienna and it was even bombed twice in 1999 by NATO airplanes.

Unfortunately, the majority of original paintings and treasures from the monastery have been lost either in the various fires or damages the monastery has suffered throughout the centuries.

The monastery was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006 and has been attracting tourists from all across the world ever since. So even though we can’t see the Gračanica Monastery’s original historic art pieces, we can still marvel at its architectural beauty.