Morača Monastery

Visiting

Morača is a working monastery. Visitors walk in through the gate in the wall and cross the garden to the churches. As in any Orthodox church, cover shoulders and knees and ask before photographing the frescoes.

What to see

• The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, the main church, in the Raška style, with a Romanesque main portal and the founding inscription above the west door.
• The frescoes of the 13th century, of which the raven feeding the prophet Elijah in the desert is the oldest and best known. It belongs to a cycle of eleven scenes from Elijah's life.
• The 16th and 17th-century painting: two Last Judgement scenes of 1577-1578, the west facade painted in 1616 by Georgije Mitrofanović, and the Church of St Nicholas painted by Kozma in 1639.
• The Church of St Nicholas, the small second church in the courtyard.
• The konak, the monks' lodgings, and the garden inside the walls, laid out with lawns, clipped shrubs and stone paths.

History

Stefan Vukanović, son of Vukan and grandson of Stefan Nemanja, founded Morača in 1252 as the church in which he meant to be buried. He later withdrew from political life and took monastic vows, and the monastery kept his memory as its founder.

The Ottomans burned the monastery in 1505, and it stood abandoned for about seventy years. The monks Tomo and Mojsije rebuilt it between 1574 and 1580 with the support of the local people, above all the knez Vukić Vučetić, and new frescoes followed: the Last Judgement scenes of 1577-1578, the west facade by Georgije Mitrofanović in 1616 and Kozma's painting of the Church of St Nicholas in 1639. One of its frescoes won a prize at an international exhibition of fresco painting in Paris. The monastery is the subject of a scholarly monograph published by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2006.

Getting there

The monastery is beside the main road through the Morača valley, a short walk from the road to the gate. Drive times without traffic: Kolašin 25.3 km, about 37 minutes; Podgorica 45.8 km, about 1 hour 5 minutes; Mojkovac 46 km, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Intercity buses between Podgorica and Kolašin run along the road past the monastery.

Nearby

• The Morača river and its canyon, which the road follows south of the monastery.
• Mrtvica, a tributary canyon of the Morača.
• Kolašin and Biogradska Gora National Park, 25 km and more to the north.
• Kolašin's monument to the victims of fascism.
• Podgorica, 46 km south.

When was Morača Monastery built?

In 1252, by Stefan Vukanović Nemanjić, grandson of Stefan Nemanja, as his burial church.

Which fresco is the famous one?

The raven feeding the prophet Elijah, painted in the 13th century, the oldest fresco in the monastery and part of an eleven-scene cycle of Elijah's life.