Panoramic view:
Frescoes:
Other Monasteries:
Studenica
Zica
Mileseva
The Patriarchate of Pec
Sopocani
Gracanica
Decani
Ravanica
Ljubostinja
Kalenic
Manasija
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The Kalenic monastery is a foundation of protovestiar (high Byzantine title)
Bogdan, his wife Milica, and his brother Peter. The church, dedicated to
the Presentation of the Holy Virgin, was built and painted between 1407
and 1413. After repeated Turkish assaults it was abandoned in the late 17th
century. The monastery was restored in 1766, but during the rebellion against
the Turks, in which the Kalenic monks took part, 1788-1791, the monastery
was burnt. The monks came back towards the end of the century. The new narthex
was erected in 1806.
The Kalenic church was built in alternate courses of stone
blocks and bricks joined with thick layers of mortar. The facade
is segmented vertically by pilasters and engaged colonnettes,
and horizontally with two cordon cornices around the whole
church. Two-light windows are in the zone between the two
cornices, while the upper zone contains arches, twisted
colonnettes and rosettes. Above, there are the arches of the
dome's pedestal, rosettes, and checkering. Architecturally, the
ground plan of the church has the form of a trefoil with an apse
at the eastern end and a narthex facing west. The central dome
crowns the middle part of the nave, whereas the blind dome is
above the narthex.
Particularly valuable are the carved decoration on the portals, windows
and facade, typical of the so-called Morava school of Serbian art. The
major moulding patterns include two-wired cable, stylized lilies and palmettes,
and also human and animal figures. The most striking piece is the representation
of the Virgin with Christ flanked with two seraphims in the lunette above
the south-side two-light window.
Concerning the fresco painting, the north wall of the narthex contains
the founders' composition; below is the portrait of despot
Stefan Lazarevic. Especially significant, even peculiar, is a cycle
of scenes from the life of the Holy Virgin taking all four walls of the
narthex, in three registers. Only some of the units of the Festival Cycle,
in the highest register, have survived, as the Annunciation, a fragment
of the Nativity, Candlemas, the Ascension, the Harrowing of the Hell and
a part of the Dormition oh the Mother of God. As to the choir apse, there
stand out the figures of the warrior saints. As usual, the altar space
is adorned with the Communion of the Apostles and the procession of the
Church Fathers.
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