The story of Manasija monastery

Behind massive walls and eleven towers, Manasija looks more like a castle than a monastery. Despot Stefan Lazarević built it between 1406 and 1418 as his mausoleum. His biographer, Constantine the Philosopher, wrote that he went across hills and fields and deserts looking for the right place for this silent home.

The church of the Holy Trinity was consecrated at Pentecost in 1418, after about 2,000 square metres of frescoes had been painted by the most skilful painters the despot could find. Manasija became the cultural centre of the Serbian Despotate, and its Resava School was famous throughout the 15th and 16th centuries for its manuscripts and translations. During the Ottoman centuries the monastery was abandoned and wrecked several times.

The lead was stripped from the church roof, and for over a century rain ran down the painted walls, so only about a quarter of the frescoes survive. Even so, they are among the finest of the Morava school.