Sightseeing stop in Đurđevi Stupovi (Durdevi Stupovi): discover beautiful places in Serbia

Đurđevi Stupovi (Durdevi Stupovi) highlight

monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

We at Monterrasol Transfers specialize in private car transfers. Together with the transfer itself, we propose that you visit some beautiful places along the transfer route. We call such places optional sightseeing stops (short excursions).

One of the places we selected to propose as a sightseeing stop is a beautiful Đurđevi Stupovi (Durdevi Stupovi) in Serbia. Sightseeing stops are a perfect easy opportunity to see new places during your transfer across Serbia, especially during long distance transfers. Take it as a great option to get in touch with local culture and history. It's good to combine transportation and sightseeing together!

The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery, dedicated to St. George, existed for over 845 years, and located in the vicinity of today's city of Novi Pazar, in Serbia. The monastery is exceptional not only for its position and significance it had according to medieval chronicles and manuscripts, but also for its particular architecture. The columns of the Durdevi Stupovi Monastery were built in a characteristic style that represents a unique synthesis of two architectural conceptions of the Middle Ages, Byzantine architecture in the East and Romanesque architecture in the West. The monastery is UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Last reviewed: 7 April 2024

Đurđevi Stupovi (Durdevi Stupovi) description

The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery is located near city of Novi Pazar, on the top of a prominent hill covered with woods. It was erected approximately in 1170 as an endowment of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, the great prefect, in the first years after the accession to the throne of the great prefect. The monastery is dedicated to St. George, and is also known as the ＂Pillars of St. George＂. The monastery was named after the church dedicated to St. George and its two former bell high towers, so called pillars. Namely, according to Stefan the First-Crowned, Nemanja had built this church to commemorate his gratitude to St. George for saving him from dungeons-caves where he was put by his brothers.

The Durdevi Stupovi is one of the oldest Serbian monasteries, there was found the inscription of Stefan Nemanja from 1170/1171. The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery is one of the few monuments of that era that is dated, and represents an important testimony of the beginnings of Serbian literacy. The monastery is included in the World Cultural Heritage and is under the protection of UNESCO. The monastery has existed for over 845 years, of which 300 years have been in ruins and 40 years have been under renovation. Today, the monastery has been largely restored and occupied by 4 monks and 2 novices.

The special importance of the monastery, in addition to the old biographical texts, is also told by the exceptional position of the monastery built on the very top of a prominent hill, as well as the unique architecture of the church of St. George with two towers-pillars that gave the later name to both the church and the monastery - The Durdevi Stupovi (George's pillars). A similar architectural solution, rather unusual for Orthodox churches in the Balkans, is still found in the much smaller Church of the Virgin in Donja Kamenica, in which, however, both front towers have been preserved.

The abbot of the monastery of St. George had a prominent place in the life of the Serbian Orthodox church, and the monastery itself belonged to the royal monasteries in the thirteenth century. The monastery was built on the crown estates of the Nemanjic dynasty and had a considerable estate at its disposal.

The second founder of the monastery was King Dragutin, who built the monastery church and painted its vestibule. He was transferred from Srem (town and area around city Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia), where he lived, to the monastery of St. George and buried there in 1316.

The columns of the Durdevi Stupovi Monastery were built in a characteristic style that represents a unique synthesis of two architectural conceptions of the Middle Ages, Byzantine architecture in the East and Romanesque architecture in the West. The Church of St. George has an important place in the formation of this architecture, known as the Raska School, as a building that begins this creative epoch in the architecture of medieval Serbia.

The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery was built with a series of architectural and construction innovations in the construction of that time. These include characteristic towers - columns, side vestibules, an elliptical dome, the irregular shape of the altar space, as well as the specific solution of the central dome space of the church.

Very few traces remain of the original painting in the church. However, we know about it through old photographs that were taken between the two world wars, as well as from the first research (N. L. Okunjev). After the Second World War, a part of the decoration and frescoes was removed from the walls and transferred to the National Museum in Belgrade.

Jesus Christ the Almighty was surrounded by angels in the half calotte (a concavity in the form of a niche or cup, serving to reduce the apparent height of an alcove or chapel). The wall surfaces of the dome were painted with figures of the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Daniel and Zechariah the Younger, while above the prophet Daniel were Saints Azariah and Ananias.

On the western pair of pendentives (a constructional element permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room; the pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for a dome; in masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath) were the holy evangelists Luke and Mark, between them Saint Keramida, and on the southern and northern sides of this ring were medallions with angels.

The upper and middle zones are dedicated to major holidays and scenes of Christ's sufferings: Encounter, Baptism, Ghosts, Resurrection of Lazarus, Blossoms, Transfiguration, Betrayal of Judas, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Crucifixion, and, probably, Lamentation. In the lower zone were holy warriors and busts of saints. On the belly of the arch of the passage from the nave to the chancel, in special frames were Saints Tarach and Andronikos , and below them Saints Peter and Paul.

The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery was abandoned in 1689, after the Austro-Turkish war, when the last 16 monks who made up the brotherhood left the monastery and fled to the north before the Turks. During the next two centuries, the Durdevi Stupovi Monastery became a ruin that was further destroyed by wars.

During the First Balkan War, the Turkish army, wanting to control the direction of Ibar, built a cannon battery from the ruins of the The Durdevi Stupovi Monastery, and used the old stone materials to build a wall surrounding the battery against the advance of the Serbian army. The Serbian army was forced to open fire from its own cannon batteries with shells and shrapnel on the Turkish batteries in the monastery, which contributed to the destruction of the monastery.

In the second half of the 20th century, work on the research and restoration of the monastery began. Archaeological and restoration works were conducted between 1960 and 1982 in the framework of a large project related to Stari Ras and Sopocane, which have been together fist as natural heritage and after since 1979 included in the UNESCO World Heritage site list.

We know good things to see in Serbia. We know the roads, well-known tourist attractions like UNESCO sites, and off-the-beaten-path places.

If you would like to learn more about Serbia and explore it by visiting different attractions, come with us for a private tour. We can travel all across Serbia and we will show you all the important tourist attractions together with the hidden gems of this beautiful country. Feel free to contact us!

We have developed numerous itineraries for private car tours in Serbia as well as in neighboring countries, including tours passing through several countries as one journey. Solo private tours and tours for Seniors are available also.