PATRIARCHAL MONASTERY OF PEĆ

With its red-walled churches contrasting with the green of the surrounding hills, the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć (Манастир Пећка патријаршија/Manastir Pećka patrijaršija, Manastiri Patriarkal i Pejës) marks the entrance to Rugova Gorge. Founded by St. Sava around 1330 and listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2006, this 3-hectare Serbian Orthodox complex is, due to its historical significance, one of the most valuable religious sites in Europe. Important home of the Serbian culture, it conceals medieval frescos among the richest of the Balkans. Today occupied by about twenty nuns who follow the Julian calendar and the Code of Saint Sava, the monastery shelters the tombs of Serbian Orthodox primates, the oldest tree in Kosovo, the ruins of ancient monastic buildings and, above all, four churches and a narthex adjoining each other, which form an ecclesiastical complex almost without equivalent in the history of Christian architecture.

Ecclesiastical complex. Built between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the heart of the monastery of Peć is composed of four adjoining churches and a monumental narthex. A tour following the chronology of the realization of the buildings and their frescoes is almost impossible as the periods are so intertwined. We propose the following route

:1 - Narthex. Added around 1330 and remodeled two centuries later, this monumental portico links three of the four churches together and constitutes the "vestibule".
2 - Church of the Holy Apostles. This is the oldest of the churches and the catholicon (main church) of the monastery. Dating from 1230-1240, it is located in the center of the complex.
3 - Church of Saint Demetrios. Located to the north (left) of the Church of the Holy Apostles, it was completed in 1324.
4 - Church of the Mother of God-Hodegetria. Located south (right) of the Church of the Holy Apostles, it was built almost at the same time as the narthex (1330s).
5 - Chapel of Saint Nicholas. Significantly smaller than the other churches, it is also the only one not connected to the narthex and the only one without a dome. Built at the same period as the narthex and the church of the Mother of God, it is attached to the south wall of the latter.

An architectural rarity.

Seen from above, the ecclesiastical complex gives the impression of a single church with three domes. This is an almost unique example in the history of Christian architecture. The only monument that comes close is the Pantocrator Monastery (12th century) in Constantinople/Istanbul. The comparison with the great Byzantine buildings was in fact constantly in the minds of the commissioners of the Peć complex. For the Serbian primates and rulers, it was a matter of affirming the existence of an autocephalous patriarchate, i.e., independent of that of Constantinople. This desire is felt in the architecture of the buildings, marked by two local artistic currents (the school of Raška, then the Serbo-Byzantine school), in the inscriptions no longer written in Greek but in Old Slavonic (ancestor of the current Serbian-Croatian language) and, above all, in the frescoes.

Frescoes. The entire interior surfaces of the narthex and the four churches were painted. The frescoes date mainly from the 13th-14th centuries and the 16th-17th centuries, and are particularly well preserved with a few exceptions. Combining techniques of pigment application on wet plaster (affresco) or dry plaster (a secco)

, the painters produced works of great variety, both in their artistic qualities and in the themes treated. Largely influenced by Byzantine iconography, they also tried to break away from this heritage by creating rare or original themes. Thus, the series of portraits of Serbian saints created here have become a standard for all Serbian Orthodox churches. Created at different times, the frescoes in the five buildings also reflect the artistic and political developments of the Balkans, even incorporating elements of Ottoman culture, the Italian Renaissance, and Russian iconography. Conceived in the context of a largely illiterate society, these works can be read today as an immense comic strip recounting the life, myths and hopes of medieval man.

Red walls.

In 2006, all the exterior walls of the churches and part of the narthex were painted brick red (or ochre). This color evokes the first Byzantine churches built in brick and symbolizes the blood of Christ. For the Serbian patriarchate that commissioned the operation, it was to imitate the color of the catholicon of the monastery of Žiča (Serbia), which itself takes the traditional red of some monasteries of Mount Athos (Greece). The intervention has provoked strong criticism from many art historians for whom it distorts the original appearance of the complex. In fact, the exterior walls were designed to remain blank or to be decorated with frescoes.

Visit. Three things to know. The monastery is under police protection and you must leave an ID at the security station. An audio guide in French is available (2 €). The monastery store offers honey, Velika Hoča wine, and icons and raki made by the nuns.