Gračanica Monastery

The Gračanica Monastery (Manastir Gračanica, ɡratʃǎnitsa; Manastiri i Graçanicës) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in Kosovo. It was built by the Serbian king Stefan Milutin in 1321. The monastery was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and on 13 July 2006 it was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List under the name of Medieval Monuments in Kosovo as an extension of the Visoki Dečani site, which was overall placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Gračanica Monastery is one of King Milutin's last monumental endowments. The monastery is located in Gračanica, a Serbian enclave in the close vicinity of Lipjan, the old residence of bishops of Lipljan. The monastery is located in Gračanica, a Serbian enclave near Lipjan, some from Pristina. It is situated on the Kosovo field, on the left riverbank of Gračanka, a right tributary of the Sitnica river. The name is derived from Slavic Gradac, a toponym of fortified cities. Gračanica was constructed on the ruins of an older 13th-century church of the Holy Virgin. It was located in the centre of the Eparchy of Lipljan. Stefan Milutin's ktetor comment are written on the southern wall, including "I have seen the ruins and the decay of the Holy Virgin's temple of Gračanica, the bishopric of Lipljan, so I have built it from the ground and painted and decorated it both from inside and outside". In 1346, when the Serbian Archbishopric was raised to the rank of Patriarchate, the bishop of Lipljan was granted the honorary title of metropolitan bishop, and since that time they were called metropolitans of Lipljan or Gračanica. Of the former monastic compound, only the church has survived. The narthex and the tower were added a few decades later, in order to protect the frescoes on the west facade. The narthex was heavily damaged by the Ottomans several times between 1379–1383, when the tower was burned and a fire devoured a rich collection of manuscripts and other precious objects. The narthex was reconstructed in 1383.