On the evening of 23 May, in the crypt of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, the book launch of our publication "Full of Grace: Representations of the Mother of God in Serbian Medieval Wall Painting" took place. Their Graces Bishops Maksim and Grigorije talked about the Mother of God and her relevance in the history of salvation and our dai...
We have recently uploaded a fresh assortment of images from the Gradac Monastery on our website. Our team had the pleasure of revisiting this exceptional example of medieval Serbian art, and we have captured stunning new photographs at a higher resolution, along with drone footage showcasing a panoramic view of the monastery grounds. Moreover, we h...
From 21 December 2022 until 23 February 2023, the exhibition "Gračanica: The Brilliance of Art in the Age of King Milutin," authored by Aleksandra Davidov Temerinski, was on view at the Gallery of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. Over 22 000 people visited the exhibition, realized in cooperation between the SASA and the R...
2022 was a very productive year for the BLAGO fund. The following accomplishments only partially represent our continued work collecting and publishing Serbian heritage. We have published seven new collections, including Monastery Kalenić, Monastery Jošanica, the church in Crkolez, the churches of Sredačka and Sirinićka župa, and the church in Rama...
The first printed edition of BLAGO Fund, "Full of Grace: Representations of the Mother of God in Serbian Medieval Wall Painting," published by Laguna Press, is now available in select bookstores. The book features texts in English and Serbian by His Grace Bishop Dr. Maxim (Vasiljević), art historian Dr. Ivana Lemcool, a foreword by His Gr...
A new collection is available on our website. The Church of Saint John the Forerunner in the village of Crkolez in Metohija is first mentioned in a charter issued in 1400 by Princess Milica with her sons. Since the charter confirms the boundaries and privileges established at the time of Emperor Dušan, the church must have been built before hi...
We have made our collection with photographs, videos, and VR tours of the churches of Sredačka župa available on our website. The region of Sredačka župa, east of Prizren, consists of several mountain villages in the valley of the river of Prizren Bistrica. In addition to Sredska with its hamlets of Bogoševci, Krajći, Milačići, Račojći, Paličo...
We have made our collection with photographs, videos, and VR tours of the churches of Sirinićka župa available on our website. Sirinićka župa is a historic region on the north slopes of the Šar Mountains in the province of Kosovo and Metohija. It preserves a great number of churches from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that were built and a...
On the fourth day of our Kosovo trip, Nenad Vukićević and Zoran Jovanović headed south to the old royal city of Prizren. The road is well-known, as we spent some considerable time there in June of 2019 while recording for churches of Prizren, including the famous Virgin Ljeviška. Our destination is a cluster of small churches in Sirinićka and Sreda...
Despite several setbacks, rescheduling, and plan changes, the members of the BLAGO Fund team managed to visit the monasteries of Gradac and Nova Pavlica this last June. Some 15 km apart, situated on the slopes of the beautiful mountain Golija, these monasteries are located in southwestern Serbia, Raška district, close to the old town Brvenik. ...
The collection of the Kalenić monastery is available to a worldwide audience. It contains photographs of the entire wall painting of the monastery church, its architecture, sculptural decoration, and the surrounding courtyard. You can also take a virtual tour of the church's interior and enjoy the selection of the most representative photograp...
Monday, May 9, 2022, BLAGO Fund sponsored session took place at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the largest gathering of scholars specializing in medieval studies hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University. Every year, the congress brings together thousands of medievalists from around the world to Kalamazoo, MI,...
A new collection of the monastery of Jošanica is now available on our website. The monastery is located in the vicinity of the town of Jagodina in central Serbia, at the foothills of Crni Vrh mountain. The exact time of construction and painting of the church is not known; the most recent analyses date it to the 1430s. The original dedication ...
This month, the BLAGO Fund and Wikimedia Serbia representatives have signed an agreement allowing for a significant number of photographs created by the BLAGO team to become available on the Wikimedia Commons. Photographs of some of the most famous Serbian monasteries and churches from our collections will be used as illustrative material for Wikip...
It is with great excitement that we can announce that the BLAGO Fund sponsored session, "Digital Methods in Preservation of Medieval Cultural Heritage: New Approaches and Technologies", at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo will take place Monday, May 9, 3:00 p.m. EDT (9:00 p.m. CET). Each year, the Congress...
A new collection of the church of St Nicholas, Ramaća, is now available on our website. At the foothills of Rudnik mountain, 25 km from Kragujevac, is the picturesque village of Ramaća with its old church, known by its folk name Kumanica, currently dedicated to Saints Constantine and Helen. The church was initially dedicated to Saint...
As the new year approaches, it is time to look back and recap what we have done in the past year, which has been quite busy for us. PUBLIC UPDATES Monastery MANASIJA Collection We have enriched our digital collection of Manasija monastery with virtual tours and photographs of the architecture and fresco decoration of the church and fortificat...
A new collection of the Holy Archangels Monastery near Prizren is now available on our website. Even though there are only remains of the main church, fortification walls, and other buildings of the once lavishly decorated monastic complex, the historical importance of this imperial foundation that served as the mausoleum of Emperor Stefan Duš...
It has been a pleasure to have been a part of the International Conference "King Milutin and the Palaelogan Age: History, Literature, Cultural Heritage." We want to thank and congratulate the organizers and all participants for making this a truly remarkable event. During these three days, many photographs and videos of the BLAGO Fund were used in ...
Gračanica monastery, near Lipljan in Kosovo, is the last monumental foundation of King Stefan Milutin. Built on the ruins of the former Church of the Holy Virgin, the monastery was completed in 1321 and dedicated to the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin, subsequently re-dedicated to Her Dormition. On the western wall of the southe...