Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo
The fate of the 14th-century abbey, one of the best-preserved medieval churches in the Balkans, has been darkened by ethnic violence
- By Kathleen Burke
- Smithsonian magazine, March 2009, Subscribe
Time stands still within the Visoki Decani Monastery, nestled among chestnut groves at the foot of the Prokletije Mountains in western Kosovo. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2004, Unesco cited the 14th-century abbey as an irreplaceable treasure, a place where "traditions of Romanesque architecture meet artistic patterns of the Byzantine world."
The Serbian Orthodox monastery represents, according to art historian Bratislav Pantelic, author of a book on Decani's architecture, "the largest and best-preserved medieval church in the entire Balkans." Construction of Decani, dedicated to Christ the Pantocrator, or ruler of the universe, commenced in 1327 under King Stefan Uros III Decanski. (The monastery also functions as his mausoleum; the king's coffin rests at the head of the altar.)
The monarch's son, Stefan IV, completed his father's monument and was also responsible for the defining glory of the building's interior: its Byzantine frescoes, several thousand in all. The wall paintings incorporate thousands of individual figures illustrating such themes as the life of Christ, the veneration of the Virgin and the succession of kings in Stefan III's dynasty. Some of the tableaux—the story of Genesis, the Acts of the Apostles and the Proverbs of Solomon—are unique to Byzantine painting. Created over a span of 15 years, the frescoes exist in a state of extraordinary preservation. "When you go in," adds Pantelic, "you see exactly what you would have seen in the mid-1300s. That's what is amazing."
Across the centuries, Pantelic says, the abbey was regarded as "an ancient holy place that transcended religious divisions." In recent years, however, Decani's fate has been darkened by the cycle of ethnic violence that has engulfed the region since the early 1990s. Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians have long pressed for independence from Serbia. In 1998, then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic sent armed forces to crush the separatist movement. A campaign of NATO bombing, followed by the introduction of United Nations peacekeepers (a presence continued today), was required to end the bloodshed.
During the fighting, the monks of Decani, following centuries-old tradition, sheltered refugees of all ethnicities. Yet, Decani's symbolic significance as a Serbian Orthodox cultural monument has rendered the abbey vulnerable.
On March 30, 2007, the monastery was attacked with grenades, presumably thrown by ethnic Albanian insurgents. Fortunately, the damage was "negligible," according to Sali Shoshaj, director of the Kosovo office of Cultural Heritage Without Borders, a Swedish organization founded in 1995 to preserve and restore Balkan sites. At least one person, reports Shoshaj, has been arrested. The situation has stabilized to the point that Decani has reopened to visitors, he says. Local guides, fluent in many languages, lead tours into the church.
Today, the abbey is protected by a force of Italian U.N. peacekeepers, who respectfully stand guard outside its cobblestone courtyard. Decani must "remain intact as part of the Balkan heritage," says Pantelic. "It belongs to all of us."
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Related topics: Cultural Preservation Middle Ages Historic Geographic Locations Kosovo Places of Worship Historic and Cultural Monuments
Additional Sources
The Architecture of Decani and the Role of Archbishop Danilo II by Bratislav Pantelic, Reichert Verlag (Wiesbaden), 2002
Comments (8)
The propaganda is overwhelming on this entire Albanian thing.
It makes me feel like I am living in NAZI Germany, not America.
Both Dems and Republicans spit out this appeasement for Moslem aggression and throw to them Indonesia, Africa, and Yugoslavia, like the British threw Poland to the NAZIs.
Well, it did not work in 1939. The crushing of America under the weight of oil prices in 2008 and 2009 shows it does not work now either.
How bizarre of the American government to think that Americans have become more, not less, ignorant since the days of Ozzie and Harriet. We know which way Mecca is.
We are all bowing now. Why the government does not just admit it and make it a family prayer event, is the mystery.
Posted by scared American on November 5,2009 | 07:17 PM
The piece only gives half the story. Large strides have been taken within the past year in the protection of religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo. Immediately following the 2008 declaration of independence, the Kosovo Assembly passed a law defining special protective zones for sites of religious and cultural importance including Decani monastery. Among other things, the law put tight regulation in place regarding construction around these sites and gives them a range of privileges. The local Municipality and the Kosovo Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning have worked together to translate this into the local municipal development plan. Recently there have also been strong statements by the Kosovo Government disavowing the violence of 2004 and promising to do everything in their power to prevent any such attack in the future. Seen from the ground, I believe the situation is changing for the better and these sites will be properly valued in the future.
Posted by Andy McGuffie on April 8,2009 | 06:21 AM
Complete archive of fresco pictures, including virtual reality movies, of the Decani monastery can be found on the BLAGO Fund website, www.blagofund.org. I was in Decani few times since 2002 working with BLAGO and always look forward going there again.
The hole archive is located here:
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Decani/index.html
VR moves of the church that allow you to walk through the monastery can be found here:
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Decani/exhibits/qtvr/interior.html
And around the church:
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Decani/exhibits/qtvr/outside.html
Nenad
nenad@srpskoblago.org
Posted by Nenad Vukicevic on March 20,2009 | 02:16 AM
Very nice story about the Orthodox monastery Decani which is just one the pearls of the medieval Serbian art and architecture in Kosovo and Metohija. There are more churches and monasteries also very old but nearly with the same beauty. Unfortunately, more of 100 churches and monasteries with great historian value have been destroyed by the Albanian terrorists since 1999 in spite of the presence of numerous peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. Sometimes, there is an impression that NATO and UNMIK don't take care enough about the guarding of all these cultural monuments which provide an irrefutable proof that Kosovo and Metohija has always been the Serbian territory and the cradle of the art and Orthodoxy in this area. Great deal of the unprocessed violations committed by Albanians, including the firing rocket on Visoki Decani, confirms the fact that United States of America is the main sponsor of such vandalic behaviour. What to say about destroying the monastery Zociste, the Holy Virgin Mary church in Prizren and many other medieval monuments? I deeply hope that someone sometimes in the States will have the moral strenghth to revise this great injustice made to Serbia and the Serbian people.
Posted by Sreten Pantelic on March 19,2009 | 04:04 AM
In the summer of 1964, after 19 years of absence as a defected security border guard, and now teaching Cultural History of the Slavs at the University of British Columbia, I returned to my native land in the company of a good friend, a painter from Colmar, France. He wanted very much to see the mediaeval monasteries in Serbia, and I wanted to photograph them and their treasures to illustrate my lectures. Paul Schwarz, my father and I joined a group of serbian Orthodox pilgrims in my native city Novi Sad. What struck us most of all was the fact that in several of the churches, the plaster with all the frescoes were missing on the walls uniformly up to the height of 6-8 feet. We appalled to hear that during WW II, the occupying Italian and German forces has used these sacred buildings as stables for their horses, and urine had done its job. Subsequently, the Yugoslav Government had hired the best experts to carry out expensive repairs, and make panels of stunning replicas of the frescoes. I am grateful for the existence of the Smithsonian and its contributions for the preservation and popularization of works of human creativity in expressing higher values that war and wanton destruction.
Dr. Daniel Dorotich, Professor Emeritus of Education
Summerland, BC, Canada
Posted by Daniel Dorotich, PhD on March 18,2009 | 09:12 PM
For almost 10 years now, the monks of Decani also provide spiritual, food and material assistance for the many small Serbian and Roma enclaves in Kosovo. These small enclaves which include many young children and senior citizens, are also guarded by foreign troops to prevent the Albanian Muslim population from annilating them. I have contributed to the Decani Monastery Fund for several years because the monks work tirelessly to help the unfortunate among the Orthodox Christian populations and other ethnic groups like the Roma and Goranis. The fund is managed by Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Boise, Idaho. His group collects funds which are distributed to the monks of Decani for their work with the poor. If any person wants more information about helping the monks of Decani to help the poor, follow this link: http://fr-d-serfes.org/missionary/crossstillaburden.htm Thanks you to Smithsonian for the very telling article. If 150 plus churches were razed to the ground in the USA by any ethnic, criminal or terrorist groups as has been done in KOSOVO, the people of the USA would be incensed and those responsible would be brought to justice. In Kosovo, since 1999 June, with UNMIK and NATO on the ground, it was all a winks and a nods to the destroyers of Serbian Orthodox Churches, Christian cemeteries, monasteries and Church history. What a pity.
Posted by Nancy Warren on March 11,2009 | 01:31 AM
I believe this is probably the only article I have ever seen in the Western press describing the on going threat to the centuries old Serbian Orthodox monastaries in Kosovo. Hundreds of chruches have been razed to the ground by xenophobic Albanians in Kosovo and the ones that remain, are proetcted by NATO troops. The State Department have never once condemned these crimes. Rather, the United States, the creator of a Serb-cleansed Kosovo, has remainsd silent. And in that silence the United States condones these outrageous crimes against centuries old Christian churches. The Clintonian claim of "humanitarian intervention" was an Orwellian fabrication which merely allowed one ethnic group to eliminate another. The protection of these wonderful historic monuments and the handful of Serbs surviving in NATO protected ghettos, requires a new humanitarian intervention.
Posted by Nick Thompson on March 9,2009 | 08:58 AM
Just an update to your article. Jeton Mulaj was convicted for firing that rocket at Decani. He got a slap on the wrist believe it or not, special thanks to the American Prosecutor in the case (Marsha Mitchel). His defense was that he was drunk!
Posted by John Hawthorne on March 7,2009 | 03:09 PM
Last time I visited Decani, I was a student and mountaineer. Returning from a climb of Djeravica, the highest peak of Prokletije mountains. That was1953. Shortly after I departed to USA as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. What stayed in my memory were two frescoes: one showing God Mother actually nursing the baby Christ. The other is the portrait of Christ whose eyes follow you no matter where you stand.
Posted by Drasko Jovanovic on March 6,2009 | 02:19 PM
I recently visited Visoki Decani and appreciate your article by Ms Burke. Being somewhat familiar with the history of Kosovo and Visoki Decani, it would have been interesting to your readers to know about the ethnic cleansing of Serbs that took place before the war in the Balkans began in 1991 and continues to this day. In speaking with the Italian KFOR peacekeepers that guard the monastery 24/7 among other interesting facts, they revealed that at least 30 of the Italian peacekeepers have converted to the Orthodox faith. It is unfortunate that huge stone walls have been and continue to be erected around the perimeter of each monastery in Kosovo. Electric flood lights have been installed along the walls to light up the entire area, which is guarded by the peacekeepers. Each of these monasteries are self-sufficient in as much as the monks consume what they grow and rise on that land. Thank you for this article, I would like to see more such articles. Mary Paich
Posted by on March 6,2009 | 01:53 PM
I am most grateful to the Smithsonian Magazine for bringing the plight of Decani SERBIAN ORTHODOX Monastery to the attention of the American/World public. Journalist Eric Jansson wrote in 2006 that the (Serbian Orthodox) monasteries of Kosovo "are like diamonds scattered in a moral scrapyard; the monasteries are havens of peace and joy, but also the most threatened places in Kosovo since 1989." Also on your places to see, but most endangered list should be the Serbian Orthodox Monasteries of Pec, Gracanica and a host of others in Kosovo. Over 140 Serbian Orthodox churches, monuments and graveyards were destroyed by Albanian terrorists that the world knows little of. Kosovo is the heart and soul of the Serbian people. Once again, thank you for showing Decani's beauty.
Posted by Milana Bizic on March 4,2009 | 04:40 PM
Having visited and slept at Monastir Visoki Decani numerous times, I very much appreciate this article. However it is truly regrettable that so little space is dedicated to the monastery's role in protecting scores of ethnic Albanian families during the NATO campaign (1999). It is also unfortunate that the author did not elaborate on the role of the Italian peacekeepers - not to mention an examination of why they still must protect a UNESCO heritage site some nine years after the conflict ended.
Posted by Matt Parry on February 24,2009 | 10:14 PM