Dragović monastery

Dragović monastery

Манастир Драговић Manastir Dragović
Dragović monastery
Monastery information
Order	Serbian Orthodox
Site
Location	Vrlika, Croatia
Visible remains	Saint Grigorije Nemanjić relics
Public access	Yes

The Dragović Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Драговић, romanized: Manastir Dragović) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery situated on a hill downstream the Cetina River not far from Vrlika in Croatia. When the artificial Peruća Lake was created, the original monastery sank due to land movement. The new monastery Dragović was built on a hill not far from the previous one.

Dragović Monastery, which, along with the monasteries of Krka and Krupa, has been a spiritual cornerstone for the Serbian Orthodox people in Dalmatia for eight centuries. Dragović Monastery is a monastery of the Diocese of the Dalmatian Serbian Orthodox Church, located in the village of Koljane.

Based on the chronicle "History of the Holy Nativity Monastery Dragović in the Orthodox Diocese of Dalmatia" created by the first pastor Gerasim Petranović from 1859, the monastery was named after Drago who moved with his brothers from Bosnia to the Cetina region. While according to folklore, the monastery is named after the river that sprang near the old place of the monastery. The Dragović Monastery was built in 1395, six years after the Battle of Kosovo. After the battles in Kosovo, a difficult period began for the Serbian people. Especially after the death of King Tvrtko, Serbs from Bosnia moved en masse to Dalmatia, where they built this monastery.

It is located not far from Vrlika, next to Peruća Lake, 20 kilometers from Knin. During its existence, the location was changed three times, and it served and experienced the harsh fate of the Serbian people in Dalmatia in the past as well as in recent times.

History

Serbs, settled from Bosnia, built the Dragović Monastery in 1395.

Walls of the original Monastery Dragović and Peruća Lake

In 1480 the Ottoman Turks invaded the region, raided the monastery, and expelled its residents. For full twenty years, it was abandoned until restored and renewed. Forced by the hard times of Ottoman-conquered southern Croatia with a lack of supplies, five monks left for Hungary and founded Monastery Grabovac in 1555. In 1590, a year of famine, the monks abandoned Dragović and all spent the year in Grabovac. It was deserted again, this time for seventy years.

Bishop Nikodim Busović renewed the entire monastery in 1694. However, only 4 years afterward the Ottoman Turks made another breakthrough into the region and the monks found refuge in Venetian territory. The Venetian government secured them a resting place in the village of Bribir with good lands for a new monastery, where they built a small church. The Venetians also gifted the monks community with 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land around Kistanje. In 1699 according to the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Ottomans lost most of southern Croatia, so the monks were free to return to Dragović. Soon Bishop Nikodim died, and their Church in Bribir was taken over by the Venetians for Roman Catholic services.

The grounds on which Dragović rested were highly unstable and this, together with increasing moisture, convinced the monks to move the monastery to a better location. With Venetian permission, in 1777 hieromonk Vikentije Stojisavljević began to build the new monastery in the Vinogradi. The monastery's reconstruction was very long and financially exhausting until prior Jerotej Kovačević finally supervised its completion. It eventually opened on 20 August 1867.

Recent history

Monastery Dragović desecrated in the 1990s by Croatian forces.

In 1959, when the artificial lake for the hydroelectric power station Peruća had been made by the Yugoslav Communists, monastery Dragović was moved on a hill not far from the old fortress called Gradina.

Between 1991 and 1993, during the Croatian War of Independence, the monastery was broken into several times, and in 1995 it was abandoned, after which the church was devastated and desecrated, making it uninhabitable. Later, Bishop Fotije gave his blessing to Father Đorđe Knežević to begin with the reconstruction of the monastery. In autumn 2004, basic conditions were achieved for the return of monks. Thus with the decree of Bishop Fotije, on 15 September 2004 monastery Dragović received a new brotherhood, and hieromonk Varsonufije (Rašković) was appointed their Father Superior. On the same day due to the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the first Holy Hierarchal Liturgy was served in the reconstructed monastery’s church.

In this way, the tradition of the gathering of Orthodox in this monastery has been established again. This assembly occurs every year on Sunday before the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos.

Treasury

Monastery Dragović used to have a rich treasury, in which was kept a number of manuscripts from 16th-18th centuries, as well as very old books written in Greek, Latin, Italian, Russian and Church Slavic.

There were also very rare antimens, among which was one made by Hristofor Zefarović dating from 1752. A great number of sacral objects mainly made in silver granulation and filigree from the 18th century were also a part of this rich treasury.

In the monastery’s church, a part of Saint Gregory’s relics was kept - Saint Gregory was a Serbian enlighter and Archbishop who was allegedly a descendant of Saint Nemanjić family.

Gallery

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See also

• List of Serb Orthodox Monasteries
• Serbs of Croatia

External links

• Official page (Serbian)