Studenica Monastery ( 12th century)

Studenica Monastery , 11km from Usce, and 62 km S from Kraljevo. The beauty of the location is exceptional, the monastery lies on the banks of Studenica river, surounded by mountains and forest. The monastery is the ruler Stefan Nemanja s most important foundation and a treasury of medieval art . Serbian literature originated in the monastery, also a place of burial for the Nemanjics. In the center of the complex lies the Church of Our Lady ( late 12th century) the great example of the Rascian school of architecture , an artistic and architectual style that originated in Serbia at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. The church consists of one nave with a parvis and a dome painted with monumental frescoes. The building style and its interior are Byzantine, while the facade is in the western Romanesque style , coverd with white marble and decorated with many sculptures. The western portal is distinguished by its beauty, with the Mother of God with Christ surrounded by angels on the gable. Some of the oldest murals (1208-09) have been partially preserved. These paintings served as a foundation for Serbian painting in the 13th century. The monumental Crucifixion of Christ, on the western wall of the naos, on a blue setting, with a golden aureole and stars, imparts its divine serenity to the spectator.