Our Lady of Hvosno

Coordinates: 42°46′14″N 20°24′16″E / 42.77056°N 20.40444°E Our Lady of Hvosno (Serbian: Богородица Хвостанска, Bogorodica Hvostanska, Albanian: Manastiri i Virgjëreshës së Shenjtë të Hvosnos) is a Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery. It is situated at the foot of Mokra Mountain, nearby hamlets Vrelo and Studenica, some 20 kilometers north of Peć, Kosovo. Our Lady of Hvosno was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance on 10 July 1967, and Republic of Serbia claims to have it under protection.^[1]

In the third decade of the 13th century, on foundations of the basilica, a church dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin was erected and used as a seat of Episcopate. The single-nave church had a dome and an altar apse, semi-circular on the inside, rectangular on the outside. On the northern and southern sides of the narthex, there were two parecclesia, whose outside was masked with a flat surface. The chapels were topped by two towers of greater height than the church dome. The church is in compliance with the Rascian architecture. In the mid-14th century, another single-nave building with a semi-circular apse on the east, and a barrel-vault was adjoined to the church. The second half of the 16th century is a period of artistic thrive of the monastery. Debris of the monastery complex were first researched in 1930, and then from 1966 to 1970, when remains of the church and the monks dwelling-house, together with segments of the fortification, were preserved.^[2]

History

Oldest sacral building is the original monastery church, from early Byzantine period, built before the middle of the sixth century and was based on the three-aisled (central nave and two lateral aisles) basilica with a narthex and a semicircular apse where there was a reliquary. When the autocephalous Serbian Archbishopric was founded in 1219, seat of sixth (Hvosno) Serbian Diocese out of seven was placed in Our Lady of Hvosno and a new church was built within monastery comlex. A century and a half later, in 1381, the Hvosno Episcopate grew into the Metropolitanate and as such it is mentioned in written sources in 1473, 1566 and 1635. The last metropolitan Victor is mentioned in 1635. During the Great Serb Migrations Our Lady of Hvosno became deserted and dilapidated.^[3]

References

1. Rešenje Pokrajinskog zavoda za zaštitu spomenika kulture u Prištini, br. 370 od 10.7.1963.g. Zakon o zaštiti spomenika kulture (Sl. glasnik NRS br. 51/59). (Serbian)
2. Monuments of Culture in Serbia: MANASTIR BOGORODICA HVOSTANSKA. (SANU) (Serbian) (English)
3. Василије Марковић, „Православно монаштво и манастири у средњевековној Србији“ (прво издање), Сремски Карловци, 1920.(Serbian)

Literature

• Василије Марковић, „Православно монаштво и манастири у средњевековној Србији“ (прво издање), Сремски Карловци, 1920.(Serbian)
• Слободан Милеуснић, „Водич кроз манастире у Србији“, Београд, 1995.(Serbian)
• Јанковић, Марија (1985). Епископије и митрополије Српске цркве у средњем веку (Bishoprics and Metropolitanates of Serbian Church in Middle Ages). Београд: Историјски институт САНУ.
• Вуковић, Сава (1996). Српски јерарси од деветог до двадесетог века (Serbian Hierarchs from the 9th to the 20th Century). Евро, Унирекс, Каленић.
• Popović, Svetlana (2002). "The Serbian Episcopal sees in the thirteenth century (Српска епископска седишта у XIII веку)". Старинар (51: 2001): 171–184.