Sopocani

From the town centre of Novi Pazar, a well signed road leads after 7 km. to Sopocani. Founded in 1260 by the king Uros I, that church to be his mausoleum, the monastery represents a witness of the exceptional quality of the medieval Serbian art. Destroyed during the Austro-Turkish wars 1689, Sopocani was admirably restored in 1920s and then in 1950s. surrounded by a perfectly circular trench from XII century it approaches that of Studenica.

Its architecture is typical fir the Raska School. A rectangular block of a single piece, of the length of 36 meters is continuing into a large abside and flanked on each side by a chapel. At the crossing of the aisle and the transept there is, and a donjon the summit of a high square tower. Finally, in front of the entrance to the exonerate added by Emperor Dusan in the XIV century a square belfry of three stories.

The external facades have not, like in Studenica, an important plastic decoration, but Sopocani has go some frescos being among the most beautiful in the Orthodox world. On the narthex a picture show to us the death the mother of Uros I surrounded by her son and his spouse famous Helen d’Anjou. On the naos the splendid “Dream of the Virgin” where one sees her surrounded by Christ who receives her spirit in the form of a swaddled suckling. Entirely around the apostles, archangels and princes of the Church in an attitude of condolence so realistic that the painting here exceeds the strict religious framework. In the abside one could notice the “Communion of the Apostles” with a very strict and faithful representation of this celebration of the action of Christ by the fathers of the Church. The other compositions superbly organized and executed decorate the walls of the church, like “Descention into the Hell” or one more “Crucifixion” magnificently orchestrated.