VITOVNICA MONASTERY

A Place of Worship and a Fortress

The Monastery of Vitovnica, along with the remains of its fortifications, is located on the westernmost slopes of the Homolje Mountains in the village of the same name, about ten kilometres east of Petrovac na Mlavi. The complex includes the Church of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, two dormitories, cave chapel remnants, and the ruins of an old fortress. It lies on an elevated plateau on the right bank of the Vitovnica River, where the river flows out of the narrow Sklop Gorge, formed by the heights of Faca to the north and Urla and Čukar to the south. Above the monastery rises a cliff with the remnants of an ancient fortification, likely built to protect the entrance to the gorge and the nearby quarries.

According to a belief, the monastery was built by Serbian King Stefan Milutin in 1298/99, after his victory over the Bulgarian rebels Drman and Kudelin in 1291, who had ruled over the Braničevo Region from the fortress of Ždrelo in the Gornjak Gorge. It is suggested that the monastery’s church may have originally served as the court chapel for a nearby fortress, although little is known about the fort itself. Vitovnica gained historical importance in 1390, during one of the wars between the Ottomans and the Hungarians. It is mentioned in a 1390 charter by the Hungarian King Sigismund as a fortified town (castrum Vytiniche), near which a battle took place. However, later sources from 1557, 1661, 1718, and 1733 mention only the monastery. Less than a century later, the fort had fallen into ruin and lost its strategic significance. It is presumed to have been destroyed before 1467, as neither the fortress nor the settlement was recorded in the Ottoman defter (tax register) of that year or in 1476, where only the namesake mezra (an abandoned village’s land) was listed.

ABOVE: Map of the site

Манастир Витовница код Петровца на Млави

ABOVE: Vitovnica Monastery

The monastery church features a triconch design with a compact inscribed cross plan, topped by a dome over the nave supported by pilasters. Constructed from roughly hewn stone interspersed with rows of brick, the facade is adorned with architectural elements typical of medieval Serbian construction from the last quarter of the 13^th century. Distinctive features include blind niches on the polygonal choir apses, blind arches in the upper facade zone, and a serrated cornice, all indicative of the building style during King Milutin’s reign. Conservation efforts revealed remnants of 14^th-century frescoes, while archaeological finds near the monastery included a 13^th-century gold earring and a dinar coin from the reigns of Kings Dragutin and Milutin.

Above the northern entrance to the narthex, a marble plaque dated to 1218 bears an inscription in Old Church Slavonic and Old Armenian, stating that Vlado, son of Babug, built the Church of the Apostles James and Peter. This plaque was relocated from the nearby church in Oreškovica, known as the Armenian Church.

ABOVE LEFT: Holy water spring in the Vitovnica River Gorge

ABOVE RIGHT: Vitovnica River flowing beneath the monastery

After the restoration of the Patriarchate of Peć in 1557, the Vitovnica Monastery became a prominent spiritual and cultural centre in this part of Serbia. When the monastery was devastated by the Ottomans in 1690, the monks fled to the Bešenovo Monastery in Fruška Gora, taking with them the famous Vitovnica Gospel. This precious manuscript, encased in gilded silver in 1557 by the renowned goldsmith Vuk Kondo, is now preserved in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.

Joakim Vujić recounts the severe devastation the monastery suffered at the hands of the Turks during the First Serbian Uprising when it was demolished and set ablaze. Although partial restoration began after the Second Serbian Uprising, it was only in the mid-19^th century that the monastery saw a true resurgence. The then abbot, Stefan Bojović, is remembered as a symbol of the monastery’s revival and progress. Under his leadership, the restoration was completed in 1856, with the church being repainted, a new iconostasis created, and a narthex with a bell tower added.

Today, Vitovnica is a revered pilgrimage site, attracting numerous faithful who come to pray at the tomb of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica. He not only led the monastic community for many years but was also a native of this village.

ABOVE: The narrow gorge of Sklop begins upstream from the monastery

List of References

Records from the Past

In the 1888 edition of Starinar, the journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society, Mihailo Riznić wrote: “King Milutin may have erected this monastery after the battle with the Tatars in 1291. At that time, two rebels, Drman and Kudelin, had risen against the northern Serbian King Dragutin, Milutin’s brother, in the Ždrelo fortress of the Braničevo region. Milutin assembled a powerful army and achieved such a resounding victory over the Tatars that the Mlava River flowed red with blood.”

ABOVE: A sheer cliff with remnants of an ancient fortification rises above the monastery

Mining Center

The name Vitovnica comes from the term “vitlo,” which refers to a type of waterwheel or river winch used for grinding and washing ore. The Vitovnica River used to support a network of smelting forges and waterwheels, and there are still unexplored mining sites in the surrounding hills. In the monastery forest, there are remnants of old mining shafts, known as “majdan” to this day. Archaeological findings, such as pieces of slag, ancient mining tools, and other artefacts found at the sites of Letište and Pojana Kušenj, indicate significant mining activity, including the extraction of silver, lead, and iron ore dating back to antiquity.