MONASTERIES OF OVCAR -KABLAR GORGE
(SUMMARY)

The artistic, cultural and historic heritage of Ovcar-Kablar monasteries presents the most significant civilized possession in the region of Cacak and its vicinity. This unusual group of monasteries was gradually created through the period of six centuries, struggling with constant ups and destructions, reconstructions, dying away, but the continuity of monks' life, intellectual and artistic creations have
never stopped.
Today, at the beginning of XXI century, there are nine monasteries in Ovcar-Kablar gorge and two holy places. The appearance of these temples is surrounded with darkness. The lack of historical sources leaves a lot of space for numerous assumptions and bold hypothesis. But it is almost sure that the Ovcar-Kablar monasteries were built in the end of XIV century in the time of coming of sinaitic monks to Serbia. This cosmopolitan monks' order of East Europe and Mediterranean was practicing isihazm. Apart from their point of view of orthodox religion they brought to Serbia a new way of organizing small monks' communities and building of monasteries.
The characteristics of the style of church monastery Nikolje confirm that it was built at the end of XIV and the beginning of XV century. We have no other proofs. Out of all these monasteries only the churches monasteries of Nikolje, St Trojice and Blagovestenje remained close to the original way of building; however they were built at the end of XVI and the beginning of XVII century. Harmonious monastery constructions radiate with its beauty even today. But, except for Nikolje, which was mentioned in the historical sources in 1476 for the first time, none of these monasteries originate from the Middle Ages. This monastery of modest architectural as well as painting values is still the best preserved. Naos was painted in 1587 and narthex in 1637. Monastery Nikolje has exceptionally valuable treasury.
Reconstruction or a completely new building of other monasteries was organized in XVI century during the Turkish rule. During the Turkish Empire it was not allowed to build new churches, but only to reconstruct the old ones on the existing foundations, but there were some mistakes made by Turkish administrators. Today we are not able to conclude how the process was going on in Ovcar- Kablar gorge.
Three monastery churches (Nikolje, Trojice and Blagovestenje) are the best preserved and the most valuable artistic, cultural and historical heritage of Ovcar-Kablar gorge. Wars and destructions ruined other monasteries to that extent that we can judge about their artistic values only according to few remained architectural details or manuscripts. The period after the Great Migration in1690 and the XVIII century was the time of destruction and neglect of Ovcar-Kablar monasteries. In the centuries to come there was no power, or artistic skill to reach the artistic values from XVI and XVII centuries.
The Great Migration across the Sava and Danube, and the fear of hatred and Turkish revenge took also many monks away from Ovcar-Kablar monasteries. It is most likely that monasteries Sretenje, Vaznesenje, Vavedenje, Preobrazenje, and Jovanje were destroyed and deserted at that time. The remained monasteries - Trojice, Nikolje and Blagovestenje - survived destructions and probably kept the monasticism. The new war between Austria and Turkish Empire in the first half of XVIII century brought occupation of north Serbia by Austrians who held the border on the slopes of Kablar against the Turks from 1717 to 1739. Thus Ovcar-Kablar gorge became the border zone. The uncertainty of the war times made the monasteries live on the verge of existence and the population experienced real cultural regression, especially after the second abolishing of Pec Patriarchy in 1766. The only active monastery was Nikolje whose monks took part in the clashes between the Austrians and Turks in the period from 1788 to 1790.
The wars which were led on these territories in XVII and XVIII centuries brought much destruction and people's sufferings. The peace which started in 1791 made the living conditions of Christians in Turkish Empire bearable. That reflected in reconstructing and building of monasteries and churches. There was a great enthusiasm which lasted till the mid XIX century. First, Vavednje was reconstructed in 1797, and in 1811 Preobrazenje was reconstructed, too. After getting autonomy, a monk and later episcope Nikifor Maksimovic started reconstruction of Sretenje in 1818 and works lasted till the 40s of XIX century. The church walls were painted with completely new frescoes in 1844, and in monastery churchyard several new konaks were built so this monastery became the most powerful in the economic sense with numerous material goods. Reconstruction was going on in other monasteries as well. In 1850 Trojice got a bell tower and previously Jovanje was also reconstructed.
In the course of time there were damages and ruining of monasteries. In 1870 the dome of Vavednje fell in and the reconstruction did not bring the old appearance back. The newly built bell tower in Trojice had to be pulled down and as a consequence of continuation of the wall breaking the monastery had to be abandoned in 1902. Jovanje was also deserted due to the fact that there were not enough monks, while Blagovestenje also had the problem with wall breaking and was without monks for several years.
At the beginning of XX centuries there were new problems in the existence of monasteries because of the road and rail way constructions through the gorge. Monastery Preobrazenje was pulled down in 1911 because of the railroad tracks, while the breaking of the walls of monastery Blagovestenje was mainly because of the tunnel for the new hydroelectric power station which was built under the rock where the monastery had been built.
New reconstruction of the monastery was initiated by episcope Nikolaj Velimirovic after 1934. Monks' life was revived in Jovanje first in 1936. The church of monastery Jovanje was reconstructed and it was revived in 1937. Vaznesenje was completely reconstructed in 1938 and on the cliffs of Kablar a new chapel, on the place known as Sava's water, was built. The biggest achievement was building of New Preobrazenje on the other side of the Morava opposite the old location. The works lasted from 1938 to 1940. At the same time the cave Kadjenica, where one whole group of refugees was killed in 1815, was restored. New monasteries were also built - Ilinje and Uspenje on the ruins of towers from Middle Ages which were at one moment of religious enthusiasm thought of the foundations of a monastery.
The Second World War brought new destruction and trials. German planes bombed and destroyed konaks in Sretenje and Trojice, luckily the monasteries remained. After the liberation the project of building hydroelectric power plant in the gorge was renewed and Jovanje was pulled down in 1954, but it was built again in 1959 but in a changed form at a new location. At the end of XX century there was a thorough reconstruction of Uspenje which got new konaks and dining room in 1998. The works have not been finished yet. In 2001 a new narthex was built for the church of monastery Jovanje and as it is extended it looks different.

NIKOLJE

As for the majority of the monasteries in the gorge, we can not say for sure for Nikolje as well who its founder was or when it was founded. According to its architecture we can assume that it dates back from the middle ages most likely from the end of XIV century, or beginning of XV century. It was first mentioned in Turkish register from 1476, when all other monasteries from Ovcar-Kablar gorge were also recorded in the written form.
The church is monobasic arched building, of trinomial base without a dome, where two separate parts stand out. The west part is narthex which is built later. The rest of the church is naos in the shape of an extended rectangle, covered with one half-oval arch along its length. Once, on the south side there was a porch in front of the entrance. Today there is only one small eaves which protects frescoes.
Naos of the monastery church was painted in 1587 while narthex and south outside wall in 1637. It is not known whether it had frescoes before.
The schedule and iconography of frescoes in naos are mainly traditional while the topics are rather simple. Their artistic values also do not belong to the best works of art from the XVI century. Numerous portraits of saints and the choice of the most popular warriors, whose cults can be found in people's beliefs, show that the painters of Nikolje followed the taste of ordinary people and the demands of monks' community in the monastery. Some characteristics of the painting in Nikolje were conditioned by monastery architecture itself and historical circumstances when the paintings were made, especially by the demands of the people who ordered them, but by the education of the painters as well.
Basic characteristic of the narthex paintings is a cycle of frescoes devoted to Virgin Mary, which completely repeat the themes of the main icons from the front part of the monastery Blagovestenje from 1632/33. The upper part of narthex has never been painted and there are no frescoes today.
Themes and iconography of the narthex in the church monastery Nikolje do not stand out from the usual rules of the XVI and XVII centuries. The exception is the fresco of St Nicholas with Stefan Decanski. The illustration in ceremonial minej of Bozidar Vukovic printed in Venice in 1538 was the direct model for this standing fresco. Presenting of Saint Nicholas together with Stefan Decanski was made for the first time in the nearby Blagovestenje and in 1636 in the church of St Nicholas in Jezevica which directs us to the same program or painters.
The colours of frescoes in narthex lost their original shades and freshness which is certainly the consequence of the fire. Under the paintings from 1637 in temple's narthex, the remains of older frescoes can be seen but it is not known when they were painted.
Rare data from that period reveal just few details of monastery life. The first decades of XVII century were devoted to rewriting. Other records show that Nikolje was visited by Patriarch Maksim in the early spring of 1671 when the snow was high and by Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic in the beginning of Vienna war in 1683.
This is the period of Great Migration of Serbs across the Danube and Sava when numerous monasteries were abandoned or ruined. Nikolje was not destroyed. We have even fewer data about Nikolje from XVIII century. Fear and uncertainty made Nikolje abandoned from 1772 to 1775.
During the First Serbian Uprising the monastery was roofed again in 1811. The monks of Nikolje took an active part in the Uprising in 1815 and some of them were members in negotiating missions of Duke Milos for the Autonomous Serbia.
Duke Milos was closely connected with the monastery Nikolje because he was hiding his family there during 1813 when the First Uprising was crashed and his son Petar was buried there. He expressed his favor in giving the estate to the monastery in 1817. In the same year Nikolje was reconstructed but it is not known to what extent. During the first reign of Milos Obrenovic the monastery got a konak, a precious example of national craftsmanship from that time.
One of more important events from that period was making a new iconostasis for the monastery church. The work was carried out from 1826 to 1829 financed by the late Haji Atanasije and under the direct tutorship of Duke Milos. The iconostasis was made in the late-Byzantium style and contained a complex ruler's ideology of the first Obrenovic where he was presented not only as a ruler of Serbia but as, in a way, the leader of the church.
The most valuable painting in the Nikolje monastery treasury is Mother Virgin Passionate, painted at the beginning of XVI century. It came to Nikolje from the church in Miokovci and belongs to the type of Italian -Crete icons, and his author might have been Andrija Ricos, the most famous among the iconographers of Virgin Mary, whose origin was from Crete.
The treasury of monastery Nikolje keeps the most valuable manuscript in Serbian culture, written at the beginning of XVII century. That is Karan's gospel written in 1608 in the church Blagovestenje, popularly known as Karan's White church in the village Karan near Uzicka Pozega. The book was written by the priest Vuk, son of priest Rale. Karan's gospel is a unique example of the influence of Islamic culture in decorating manuscripts in our regions. Three out of four flags with the portraits of evangelists, as well as small flags, were completely worked out in the manner of Islamic tradition in decorating books.
Among the church holy objects preserved in Nikolje there is a dish for five breads, made in 1719 for the monastery Dobrilovina signed by masters of art Djuro Grujicic, Spasoje Nikolic and Milovan Petrovic. A silver incense burner of exceptional filigree work was found when they were digging foundations for the new monastery konak as well as silver icon lamp, made in 1749.
New reconstruction of the church monastery Nikolje was in 1852 in XIX century when the frescoes on the south side covered with mortar. At that time the church was completely plastered, got many blind arches on the façades of chorus places and altar in 1859. There were no other works until 1932 when the mortar from the south side stripped off because it had been covering frescoes on the outside façade. After the Second World War the biggest part of the monastery estate was taken away by the Communist orders and in 1946 probably for the first time in its history the monastery was settled with nuns after the monks had been prosecuted. Owing to the Institute for Cultural Monuments Protection the monastery was saved from ruining. In 1989 Nikolje got small but precious treasury which is open to the visitors.

JOVANJE

Once it was believed that monastery Jovanje date from XIII century. This fortification was usually connected with the tower which used to be on the place where there is a monastery Uspenje today. Archeological examinations confirmed that the tower was built in XIV century. However the style characteristic of the church monastery Jovanje before it was pulled down in1954, told us that the monastery could not have been older than XVI century when it was probably built on the ruins of an older building.
In the Turkish records made after 1528, which many researches believe to have been made in 1536, there are notes about the monastery Saint Jovan. Because of architectural similarities with the nearby Nikolje which was mentioned in 1476 for the first time, it is possible that the assumption that monastery Jovanje date back from XIV century is likely and that it was built in Morava architectural style and then it was renewed after the ruining of Serbian medieval state. Apart from assumptions there are no other evidences. There are few facts about monastery life in the first centuries of its existence. There are records that the monks rewrote books in the monastery Jovanje during XVI century.
It is not known when the church was built or reconstructed, we also do not know whether it was painted or not, when it got the iconostasis and there is no evidence about its treasury. The monastery was probably destroyed in 1690 during the Great Migration of the Serbs across the Sava and Danube when many of the Ovcar - Kablar monasteries were abandoned.
Monastery Jovanje was abandoned during XVIII century and when Vuk Karadzic visited it in 1820, only stone decorations on the doors and windows testified about the beauty of a former temple. The monastery was reconstructed in 1849.
Although the monastery was reconstructed there were not enough monks to keep the community going so the monastery was abandoned again in 1879. Episcope Nikolaj Velimirovic is responsible for its revival. 12 nuns from the monastery Kaliste were settled in the monastery in 1936. Thus monastery Jovanje became the first female monastery in Ovcar-Kablar gorge.
Because of the building of the dam in Medjuvrsje it was necessary to flood the place where Jovanje was. The monastery was completely pulled down in 1954 and the following year the hydroelectric power plant started working. After the flooding of the old Jovanje, the idea of building a new monastery above the old location was born. The new Jovanje was built on the hill above the old location. The plan was made by architect Dragomir Tadic. Today's monastery does not have the same look with the old Jovanje, in 2001 the narthex got two semi circled konhe on the north and south sides.

USPENJE

It is not likely that on the place where the monastery is there has ever been a temple. Monastery Uspenje in West Serbia was mentioned in Turkish sources in 1536, but we cannot say whether the location of the new monastery is the same. Even in the folk tradition there is no memory about the monastery Uspenje, which was built near the remains of donjon tower and a small fortification from XIV century and was built in XX century.
After the archeological excavations were finished, today the remains of the tower are more visible which was badly damaged by mining in 1939 when its material was taken for the building of the monastery. Then the walls of the tower and fortification were much taller and compact than they are today. The location of Kulina is much older than XIV century. The archeological excavations confirm that there is a cultural layer as early as X-XI century.
The works of building monastery Uspenje were finished about 1939. Following the wish of episcope Nikolaj Velimirovic, Uspenje is a true copy of the church devoted to Saint Konstantin and Jelena in Ohrid, where bishop Nikolaj was an episcope to 1934.
Although much effort was made into building of church monastery Uspenje was uninhabited and without monks, exposed to ruining. New reconstruction of the monastery, which was empty, was done in 1998 when the church of the monastery was completely reconstructed, and a complex of building was built around the temple, among them a new konak, bell tower, as well as a path towards the monastery wishing the monastery to get its monks for the first time in its history. The church was not painted, but a new iconostasis was made.

VAZNESENJE

The first written trace of Vaznesenje is believed to be in Turkish register from 1525. At that time in the village Medjuvrsje there was a monastery Drobnjak. Today it is believed that it was the monastery Vaznesenje. Thanks to manuscript of gospel which was written in Vaznesenje in 1570 we are sure that the monastery was alive in XVI century. The manuscript followed the tradition from Serbian middle Ages by its style characteristics and the influence of Islamic book decoration. In fact that is the only data about the monastery Vaznesenje that we have today. The monastery was probably ruined during the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690 as most of the monasteries in the gorge. The church was destroyed and the remains are damaged walls and two plaques, one with a motif of rose with three sets of leaves.
The monastery was in ruins for centuries until the first unsuccessful trial reconstruction in 1855. Episcope Nikolaj Velimirovic started the reconstruction of Vaznesenje first in 1937 within the project of reviving and reconstructing of the monasteries in the gorge in the 30s of the XX century. After that Vaznesenje was a female monastery till 1949.

VAVEDENJE

Almost all monasteries from Ovcar-Kablar gorge were mentioned in the Turkish register from the XVI century except from Vavedenje.
Although it was not mentioned in the registers of that time, style characteristics of the original parts of the temple tell us that Vavednje was probably founded after the loss of independence of Serbian state, but so little remained from the original church monastery Vavednje that we cannot say much with certainty about chronological determinations.
It is also not known when the monastery was abandoned and destroyed. We can only assume that it happened during the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690, because when it was reconstructed in 1797 it was mentioned that the church had been empty for 100 years. From time to time the church was a parish and from time to time it was settled by the monks. It was like that during the XIX century. In 1843 Vavedenje became the metoh (a small church) of the monastery Sretenje. There was the dome in the central part of the temple which fell in 1870 and destroyed the nave of the church which was abandoned. Reconstruction works were finished in 1875.
Vavedenje remained a parish church during the Second World War, and in 1928 the big reconstruction works started and they were finished about 1930.

PREOBRAZENJE

The first written records of the monastery Preobrazenje are connected with 1525 when it was mentioned under this name near the village Vrncani. There are other registers which regularly mentioned Preobrazenje and its income during the XVI century.
According to very few data of the register it is very hard to reconstruct the life of the monastery in the first centuries of its existence. One thing we can be sure and that is that the monks rewrote books. It is not known how the church looked like or who its founders were or when the monastery was left without monks. Preobrazenje was probably destroyed and abandoned during the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690. Folk tradition keeps the memory of destroying of settlements of ascetic monks in the cliffs of Kablar. Preobrazenje was under these cliffs. When Vuk Karadzic visited the monastery these settlements and their remains were still visible in 1820.
The monastery was in ruins for more than one century and it was only in 1811 that the monk Nikifor, later episcope of Uzice, renewed the temple, but of very small dimensions. After five years and after the second uprising the church was painted in 1816. But the construction was not very strong and the monastery was abandoned again.
There are no special data about the life of the monastery during the XIX century. Preobrazenje was metoh (a small church) of either Nikolje or Blagovestenje and without monks. The monastery was ruined in 1911 because of railway building through the gorge.
Preobrazenje was reconstructed on the opposite side of the old location, on the other bank of the river West Morava. The works lasted from 1938 to 1940. New Preobrazenje has no resemblance with the old church monastery in architectural view. Preobrazenje is a male monastery with no material goods, so they are completely devoted to spiritual achievements.

SAVINJE

There is a chapel dedicated to Saint Sava in the limestone cliffs of Kablar in the bulge naturally shaped in one cave. It was built on the place where there is a spring called Savine vode (Sava's water) in 1938. At that place there were no remains of the older buildings.
The chapel is of modest dimensions, but its building was an exceptional deed because of the inaccessibility of the terrain. The base of the chapel is in the shape of a square and it is completely under the limestone rock so only the south and west sides are walled. The chapel is under the administration of the monastery Preobrazenje. Thorough reconstruction of the chapel was carried out in 1980.

BLAGOVESTENJE

Blagovestenje is one of the few monasteries in the gorge for which we know exactly when it was founded and who it was founded by. There is the inscription above the entrance which says that it was built in 1601/02. The temple was built in Raska style and its idol was probably the church in Arilje. If talk about architecture, after St. Trojice the monastery Blagovestenje is for sure the most beautiful monastery in Ovcar-Kablar gorge.
In the same year when the temple was built the lantern above the entrance was painted. Priest Nikifor engaged famous zoo graph Mitrofan to paint the necessary capital icons as well. The interior of the monastery Blagovestenje had only painted icons on the low iconostasis at that time. The following 30 years the monks did the service in the church which was not painted. Only in 1632/33 a wooden partition was made to divide the narthex from naos. There was another set of icons on this partition but it does not exist today.
The church monastery was painted at once in 1633. Although the artistic value of Blagovestenje's painting is modest, still it presents one of the best achievements in our wall paintings from the first half of the XVII century. The paintings of Georgije Novi in narthex in the north choir, as well as the painting of Duke Lazar in the narthex are very interesting.
Monastery Blagovestenje owns one of the most significant iconostasis in the whole church art of the first half of the XVII century. The church of monastery Blagovestenje was one of the few temples which got so decorative interior in a representative way and where an impressive iconostasis dominated by its rich wood carvings and painted decorations.
Apart from the altar iconostasis, once there was one more altar on the wooden partition which was made in 1634/35, but it has been removed today. It is interesting to say that the narthex of monastery Nikolje completely copied the painting of Blagovestenje narthex including the iconostasis.
Details of the history of this temple in the following decades are not known. In 1644 the church was renewed for the second time and covered by shingle. At that time the new apses was probably built because the old one fell down for unknown reasons. It is still not painted. In the same year a konak, which does not exist any more, was built.
It is not known whether or how much Blagovestenje was ruined during the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690. Monastery church was not destroyed. In the XVIII century the number of monasteries with monks was little and the news about them scarce.
During the First Serbian Uprising in 1809 the monastery was roofed again. It seems that the Turks burnt it down in the following decade.
Due to the church dilapidated condition, the representative iconostasis was dismantled and later taken away to be restored at the beginning of XX century. The restoration took the following nine decades.

ILINJE

Monastery Ilinje was built above the monastery Blagovestenje on a hill. The temple was built on the foundation remains of a big medieval tower in 1939.
The tower and the fortification above Blagovestenje were probably similar to the tower above Jovanje where monastery Uspenje was built. There have not been any archeological excavations on this location up to now. The church is a simple and modest one nave building of a square base, without a dome or a parvis. The church of Saint Apostles Petar and Pavle near the monastery Zica served as a model for this church. The new monastery has never been inhabited.

KADJENICA

Not far from Ovcar Banja up the stream of West Morava, there is a cave Kadjenica where the whole group of refugees was suffocated by the Turks in 1815. It has never been accurately estimated how many people died there. Today we estimate that 500 to 600 people could be placed in the big hall. The bone analyses confirm that there were a great number of children between one and two year's old and older children as well and elderly people above the age of 70.
Because of the inaccessible entrance the cave was not visited very often. When the majority of the monasteries in the gorge were reconstructed in the thirties of XX century, this cave was also taken care of. The bones of the dead were collected and placed into two sarcophagi which are connected with altar apses decorated with the painting of Christ crucifixion. The works were finished in 1940.

SRETENJE

Sretenje was first mentioned in 1528. It was written under the name of Koranje in the region of village Markovica in the Turkish register. It is not know when exactly it was built. There are suppositions that it was also built in the middle Ages as Nikolje, or that it was, perhaps, built on the old foundations during the Turkish Empire.
A thorough reconstruction at the beginning of XIX century almost completely changed the former look of the church, but according to lower parts of narthex, altar apses, wall altar partition, amvon, it can be concluded that the church is old and that it was built in the Raska style.
First centuries of the church existence are not known to us today. Just fragmentary pieces of events according to few records reveal some of many happenings. It is recorded that Tatars in Turkish service burnt down the monastery Sretenje in 1623. However the greatest destruction Sretenje experienced during the Great Serbian Migration in 1690. The monastery Sretenje was probably deserted at the end of the same century. There are no data about Sretenje from the following century.
The reconstruction did not start until the end of XIX century, when a monk Nikifor Maksimovic, a future bishop, started the reconstruction of the monasteries. First the monastery Preobrazenje was reconstructed in 1811 and then in 1817 Nikifor Maksimovic moved to one cave above Sretenje which was in ruins. It seems that the biggest part of the church was reconstructed during 1818, but the works in the monastery complex lasted in the following thirty years.
Nowadays the reconstructed church monastery Sretenje is one nave building without a dome, with shallow square choirs, five side apses which is considerably lower than the narthex, parvis is rectangular, and the bell tower is too big. The walls of the former temple, before the reconstruction in 1818, were saved up to the height of choirs.
The big reconstruction organized by episcope Nikifor Maksimovic lasted from 1818 to 1847. The reconstruction was carried out without much skill and taste although it was a big and long project.
After the building works were over, painters Zivko Pavlovic from Pozarevac and Nikola Jovanovic from Ohrid were invited to paint the inside of the church in 1844. Their paintings are not of an important artistic value.
Episcope Nikifor suddenly died on 28th February, 1853 and he was buried in previously prepared grave in monastery Sretenje on 3rd March. Today the grave is in the narthex of the monastery church.
During German bombing in 1941, konak with monastery treasury, archive and library was destroyed and the church as well as its tower was badly damaged.
After the Second World War Sretenje got a separate administration and in 1947 it became a female monastery.

SVETA TROJICA

For its architecture monastery Sv. Trojice is certainly the most beautiful temple in Ovcar-Kablar gorge, located on the forested slopes of Ovcar. The first centuries of the existence of the monastery are in the dark. It has not been found out who founded it or when. Today's assumptions rely on Turkish registers. The building of the monastery was certainly at the end of XVI century.
The monastery Sv. Trojice church is one nave building with square choirs, an elaborated altar which consists of three parts, narthex and a dome above the central part of the church.
Specific characteristics of the altar, and dome as well as stone relief decoration in portal caused the opinion that the church date back from XIII century.
In fact the monastery church of Sv. Trojice was planned and built in the tradition of bringing back Raska style in architecture after reconstruction of Pec Patriarchy in 1557.
The beauty which radiates from the monastery church is telling about the artistic skill of the craftsmen engaged to work for an obvious rich founder who had a good taste and who also had the feeling for beautiful and dignified in architecture in those hard times. The monastery church was built by skillful builders and good sculptors so that its general structure and proportions present not only the most significant monument of architecture in Ovcar-Kablar gorge, but it is one of the most beautiful building achievements from the end of XVI century among Serbian Orthodox churches. The monastery church, apart from the lanterns above the parvis and narthex, has never been painted.
Very few data give the picture of first centuries of the monastery existence. Sanitation of the church revealed the traces of burning which might have happened during the Great Serbian Migration in 1690 when most of the monasteries in the gorge were destroyed. The monastery was reconstructed in 1723.
There are no data about the monastery until 1814 when it was recorded that the books from Trojice were taken to Blagovestenje. In 1820 the monastery did not have monks but two priests with their families lived in it.
New konak, which still exists north of the church, was built in 1844. That was not the end of reconstruction. In 1850 a new stone bell tower next to narthex was erected and it was there until 1902 when it was pulled down. The bell tower was most likely built thanks to episcope Nikifor Maksimovic who devoted all his life to reconstruction of monastery in Ovcar-Kablar gorge.
An important event was building of new iconostasis, a work of Nikola Markovic in 1868, in the style of romanticism with classical carving elements.
In spite all the efforts the monastery was abandoned. Only in 1937 was the monastery reconstructed.
The Second World War brought new destructions. The Germans bombed the monastery in 1941. The new konak with the bell tower was destroyed. The parvis was also ruined due to detonations. After the war the monastery was without monks until 1955. Today the monastery Sv. Trojice is may be the most beautiful and happiest whole in Ovcar-Kablar gorge.