Cathedral of Saint Basil of Ostrog
Hilltop cathedral of 1900 in Nikšić, a war memorial church designed by a Russian architect.
The Cathedral of Saint Basil of Ostrog stands on Petrova Glavica, a low hill above the centre of Nikšić, and is the building most closely identified with the town. It was commissioned by Prince Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš as a memorial to the Montenegrin and Herzegovinian fighters who fell in the wars against the Ottomans, and their names are recorded on plaques inside. The Russian architect Mikhail Mikhailovich Preobrazhensky presented the design in 1892, the foundation stone was laid in 1894, and the church was built between 1895 and 1900.
The plan follows the inscribed-cross tradition of Serbian and Byzantine church building, with a broad central dome, a spacious narthex and an exterior of dressed pale stone. Contemporaries treated it as a step forward in Orthodox church building in Montenegro, both for the clarity of the design and for the standard of the masonry. The cathedral serves as the seat of the Eparchy of Budimlja and Nikšić. From the terraces around it there are open views across the Nikšić plain towards the surrounding mountains.
Highlights
- Built 1895–1900 to a design by Mikhail Preobrazhensky
- Raised as a memorial to fallen Montenegrin and Herzegovinian fighters
- Inscribed-cross plan with a broad central dome
- Set on Petrova Glavica hill above the centre of Nikšić
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