VracevsnicaEN -

The Vracevsnica Monastery
Vracevsnica

Враћевшница, сеоско насеље општине Горњи Милановац, Моравички округ. Удаљена је од Горњег Милановца 15 километара. Према попису из 2011. имала је 85 становника. Удаљенa је 15 км од Горњег Милановца на путу за Крагујевац.

Founder of the Vraćevšnica monastery, Serbian lord, knight, and endowment holder, Radič Postupović was born in 1363 or 1372 in the village of Kamenica. He was raised at the court of the Serbian Prince Lazar and was friends with the heir to the throne - Stefan. At the age of 17, he fought in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) under the command of Prince Lazar against the Ottoman Empire. As one legend has it, he prayed to Saint George and promised that, had he survived, he would build the Vraćevšnica monastery as a sign of gratitude. During the time of Despot Stefan Lazarevic, he held the title of Headman. Together with Despot Stefan, he led the Serbian army that supported Mehmed Çelebi against Musa Çelebi in the battle of Chamurlu (Ottoman Interregnum) in 1413. Radič held large estates in Gornja Gruža, at the foot of the Rudnik mountain, where he would later found Vraćevšnica. In addition, as a reward for his services, he was gifted almost all surrouding villages from Despot Stefan, including Braničevo and Kičevo. During the reign of Đurađ Branković, after 1428, Radič was elevated to Great Headman, which was the highest court title of the Serbian despotism. The nobility held large provinces, estates and honors, and among them Radič was one of the most powerful. In addition to Vraćevšnica, Radič Postupović also founded the Great Annunciation Monastery in the village of Grabovići, near Gornji Milanovac, the church of St. Archangel Gabriel in Borač, near Knić, the Milentija monastery, in Milentija. He also participated in the restoration of the Kastamonit monastery on Mount Athos and was its second ktiter. He would then become a monk and was named Roman (after 1433). Radič spent his last years in Kastamonit as a monk, and the monastery then became Serbian. It is assumed that he died before 1456. In Serbian folk poetry, he is known as Oblačić Rade, Oblak Radoslav and Rajko of Rasina.

The Vraćevšnica Monastery is located on the southern side of the Rudnik Mountain, in the municipality of Gornji Milanovac, in the valley of the Vraćevšnica River. It was built in 1428/29. The church within the monastery is dedicated to Saint George. The painting of the church was completed in 1431. With the fall of the Serbian despotism, the monastery was deserted. It was restored in 1579, but as early as 1682 it suffered greatly, and was completely abandoned during the Great Migration of the Serbs (1690). It was rebuilt again during the Austrian occupation (1718-1739). The monastery played an important role in the Serbian Uprisings against the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the First Serbian Uprising in 1812, an assembly of all national elders of the First Serbian Uprising was held in the monastery under the leadership of Vožd Karađorđe. In 1815, Abbot Melentije gave communion to Prince Miloš and the Serbian insurgents before the beginning of the Second Serbian Uprising. A school, one of the oldest in Serbia, started working in the monastery in the 1920s. To the south of the church is a guesthouse that was most likely built by Radič Postupović in the 15th century and was renovated in 1834. On the north side is another guesthouse that was built by Prince Miloš in 1825. The new guesthouse with the bell tower was then built between 1868 and 1870. During the renovation of the monastery complex, Prince Miloš erected a monument to his mother, Baba Višnja, on the west side of the church. Vraćevšnica has been a women's monastery since 1935.

The treasury of the Vraćevšnica monastery keeps numerous valuables. There is a significant collection of icons from the 17 th and 18 th century, as well as a collection of metal and textile as well as liturgical items, gospels, icons, portraits, graphics. Of the oil on canvas paintings from the former "picture gallery", only two have survived to this day: The Baptism of Christ/The Coronation of the Virgin - the work of Pavel Čortanović from 1869, painted on both sides of the canvas, and The Portrait of Prince Miloš from 1859, the work of Đura Jakšić. The treasury is full of items from the 19 th century that belonged to the members of the Obrenović dynasty: "Takovski krst", which is believed to have been sworn to by Miloš and the insurgents in 1815, then the monastery seals that Prince Miloš used in the first years of his reign, an iron bed with the monogram "M. O.", a carpet, a pan and a pot of Princess Ljubica, a mirror and a console, an album with photos and a silver tray of Queen Natalija, an icon of the Virgin with Christ (Eleusa) from the 17 th century, which came to the collection of the Vraćevšnica monastery through the purchase of the auctioned valuables of Queen Draga and King Alexander after their deaths, a representative salon of King Alexander Obrenović, which he himself ordered to be made in Paris, in Victor Aimone's workshop in 1900, a pillow of Queen Draga, an obituary, icons, a fiddle and a saber from the house of Obrenović.

The one-nave church of Saint George was built under the influence of the monuments of the Raška school. It is five-sided on the outside, and semicircular on the inside. The facades are covered with hewn blocks of pink sandstone. The church was painted in 1431. This painting was not preserved, so the church was repainted in 1737 by a group of zographers led by Andrej Andrejević. Even the original iconostasis has not been preserved. Today's iconostasis is attributed to different authors from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Only the zographer Stavro left his signature in 1754 on the icon of the Virgin from the highest zone of the iconostasis. On the fresco at the entrance, the founder Radič Postupović is painted holding the founding charter.