Church Architecture

 

ST. SAVA'S TEMPLE
at the Vračar plateau

The temple is located in the eastern part of Svetosavski Trg. The construction preparations have lasted for a very long time, ever since 1894. At the second open competition in 1926 the architectural design of the architect Bogdan Nestorović was selected, with later incorporation of several elements of the project of the architect Aleksandar Deroko. The consecration of the foundations was made by Patriarch Varnava on September 15, 1935, and when the works have moved ahead, Patriarch Gavrilo consecrated and placed the charter in the altar, next to the cornerstone on May 27, 1939. Further construction was interrupted by the German attack on Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. It was not until the summer 1984 that the state permission was obtained to continue the construction works, so on April 30, 1985, the temple, desecrated by war and human negligence, was consecrated again by Patriarch German in the presence of all Serbian hierarchs, and the charter on continuing construction works in new historical circumstances was laid again. Branko Pešić, an architect and university professor was appointed protomaster of the construction. Although still under construction, this monumental temple represents an organic part of modern vivid image of Belgrade, being one of its main features.

SAINT SAVA
(1169 - 1236), Serbian archbishop

He was the son of Stefan Nemanja, grand župan of Serbia. As a young boy, he has longed for spiritual life, so he has run away to the Holy Mount Athos, where he entered an order and died as a monk under the name of Simeon. From the emperor and the patriarch, Sava has obtained independence of the Serbian Church, and he has become the first Serbian archbishop. Together with his father, Sava has raised up the Chilandar Monastery, and, later on, many other monasteries, churches and school all over Serbia. He has travelled twice as a pilgrim to the Holy Land. He has reconciled his brothers, fighting about power, Serbs with their neighbours, and, through creation of the Serbian Church, he has created Serbian state and culture. He has brought peace to all Balkan peoples and worked for the well-being of them all, which has brought him respect and affection of all those nations. To the Serbs he has given a Christian soul, not destructed with the destruction of the Serbian state. He died in Trnovo, during the rule of emperor Asen, on January 12, 1236, because he got sick after the Epiphany service. King Vladislav has transferred Sava's remains to the Mileševa monastery, but the Turkish Sinan-pasha took the remains and burned them in Vračar, Belgrade, on April 27, 1594.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD - RUŽICA
Kalemegdan 6

It is located near north-east walls of Belgrade Fortress, under the Zindan gate. In the time of Despot Stefan Lazarević there was an old church of the same name, which was destroyed when the Turks conquered Belgrade in 1521. What is now the church, was a gunpowder storage in the XVIII century, and turned into a military church in 1867-1869. It was heavily damaged after World War I and renewed in 1925. The iconostasis has been made by Kosta Todorović, and the icons it bears were painted by monk Rafailo Momčilović. The wall paintings were made by a Russian artist Andrey Bitsenko.

 

ST. PETKA'S CHAPEL
Kalemegdan

It is located in the immediate vicinity of the Ružica Church. It was built next to a "miraculous spring", after 1867. The present chapel was built in 1937 according to project made by the architect Momir Korunović. Its interior walls and vaults are covered with mosaics, made by the artist Đuro Radulović in 1980-1983.

 

 

ASCENSION CHURCH
Admirala Geprata 19

The church was built in 1863. The order for its construction was issued by Knez Mihailo Obrenović and Metropolitan Mihajlo, and the works were financed through donations of many Belgrade citizens. The project design was made by Pavle Stanišić and Jovan Ristić, the construction works performed by Josip Štok and Fernand Stevanov, and the contractor was Koča Z. Popović. The church was shaped in accordance with then prevailing romantism, following examples of the old Serbian monasteries, first of all the Ravanica monastery. The first icons were painted by Nikola Marković in 1864, but later, this task was assigned to the most famous painter of that time, Steva Todorović, who completed this enterprise in 1881. Also, the original wall paintings made by Nikola Marković have been replaced with new compositions made by Andrey Bitsenko in 1937. The church is rich in collections of icons, old books, articles of gold and other things from the XIX century.

ST. NIKOLAJ'S (NIKOLAJEVSKA) CHURCH
Njegoševa 43, Zemun

The church is located at the old historical center of Zemun beneath the mediaeval Gardoš fortress. It was built in 1725-1731 in baroque style, as a single-naved building with a two-storied bell-tower. It has all the characteristics of baroque temples built in Srem in the XVIII century. The interior is decorated with a richly carved iconostasis, bearing icons painted in 1762 by Dimitrije Bačević, one of the most famous Serbian painters of the second half of XVIII century. The church has one of the most valuable collections of old cultic objects, as well as a collection of XVIII and XIX-century icons. The relics of Saint Apostle Andrew, the First-called, are kept in this church.

CHURCH OF ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKY
Cara Dušana 63

This old church in Dorćol was built in 1877 and dedicated to St. Alexander Nevsky. It has served its purpose until 1891 when a decision was made to build a larger church. The project was designed by the architect Jelisaveta Načić, and the foundations were consecrated in 1912. World War I postponed the construction of the church, so it was not completed until 1928-1929, while the marble iconostasis (originally designed for the church at Oplenac) was a gift of King Aleksandar Karađorđević in 1930. The icons were painted in the same year at the artistic workshop of the Russian painter Boris Selyanko. In the choirs of the church, there are the monuments dedicated to the soldiers killed in the liberation wars (1876-1918) as well as the ones dedicated to the Russian czar Nicholas II and King Aleksandar I Karađorđević. Present wall compositions were painted in the secco technique by jeromonah Naum Andrić in 1970-1972.

ST. MARK'S CHURCH
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 17

St. Mark's Church at Tašmajdan was built in the 1931-1940 period at the place where the old church from 1835 used to be. It was designed by architects Petar and Branko Krstić, in Serbian-Byzantine style. By general architectural conception, forms and polychromy of facades, this temple is most like the Gračanica monastery. The equipping and decoration of the temple is still unfinished. At the south part is a sarcophagus with the remains of Czar Dušan, brought here from his endowment, the monastery of St. Michael the Archangel near Prizren. On the north side is the white marble crypt containing the remains of Patriarch German Đorić. One of the most valuable collections of Serbian XVIII and XIX-century icons is kept in this church.

CHURCH OF ST. VASILIJE OF OSTROG
Partizanske avijacije 21a, Novi Beograd

The most recently built Orthodox in Belgrade is at the same time the first church built on the territory of Novi Beograd since World War II. The construction started in 1996 and the church was consecrated in 2001. Relying on Christian tradition and on the outstanding accomplishments of the old Serbian builders, the architect Mihailo Mitrović has chosen shape of ancient Christian rotunda, accompanied with lower annexes and high bell-tower on the west side, as well as three-leafed altar apse on the east. This temple represents, by its composition, a solid and artistically homogenous whole, achieved by a modern construction procedure. It was built using donations of admirors of the deeds of St. Vasilije of Ostrog, the Miracle Worker.