Patriarchate of Pec Monastery
Medieval monastery at the mouth of the Rugova gorge, with four linked churches under one porch.
The monastery stands about two kilometres west of Peja, where the Bistrica river leaves the Rugova gorge. It grew into the seat of the Serbian archbishops and later patriarchs, and what looks from outside like a single church is in fact four built against one another: the Church of the Holy Apostles from the 1250s, flanked by the churches of Saint Demetrius and of the Virgin Hodegetria added in the 1320s, with the small chapel of Saint Nicholas beside them.
A long open narthex built for Archbishop Danilo II ties the group together behind a painted west front. The interiors hold one of the largest surviving sequences of Serbian medieval wall painting, ranging from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, including the Nemanjic family tree and portraits of archbishops buried in the complex. The monastery is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo and is a working community of nuns.
Highlights
- Four medieval churches joined under one shared narthex
- Wall paintings spanning the 13th to 17th centuries
- Part of the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo World Heritage site
- Setting at the mouth of the Rugova gorge
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