DESPOTOVAC

amidzin konak u kragujevcu, milosev venac, zavod za zastitu spomenika kulture kragujevac

A few kilometers east of the Village of Beljajka lies the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, commonly known as the ‘White Church’. According to local tradition, it was built around the same time as the Manasija Monastery, in the early 15th century. Although there are no reliable historical records to confirm this claim, the ‘White Church’ shares architectural and artistic qualities closely resembling smaller structures from the Despotate period, making this dating plausible with a high degree of certainty. The church underwent a thorough restoration in 1796, during which its interior was frescoed. Shortly after, an iconostasis with icons from 1800 was installed, as indicated by the donor's inscription on the royal doors. The benefactor of this restoration is believed to have been Oberknees Petar, a prominent historical figure from the First Serbian Uprising.

 

The church is a modestly sized single-nave structure combined with a compact inscribed cross layout. The entire building is constructed from ashlar stones and sandstone, with the socle area emphasized by slightly rougher processing and a minor projection from the wall plane. Above the central part of the nave rises a polygonal dome set on a cubical base supported by pendentives. Its decorative richness is achieved through a harmonious interplay of stone and brick, friezes of shallow arcades, and biforas, some of which are blind.

THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN – ‘WHITE CHURCH’, BELJAJKA

The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin in Beljajka was designated as an immovable cultural heritage – cultural monument, by the Decision of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute Kragujevac, No. R 90/1, dated March 19, 1969.

On the western side there is a small square narthex with characteristic niches on the nourthern and southern walls and a small baptismal font within one of them. The altar area ends with a semicircular apse on the eastern side, while the diaconicon and prothesis are hinted at by wall recesses. In addiotion to the aforementioned dome, the facade features a decoratively vaulted portal and small Saracenic-style windows (monophores) that give the interior of a church a tomb-like character.the floor is made of stone slabs in the narthex and a brick in the nave and altar. Fragments of frescoes have been preserved on the western wall of the nave, depicting Christ, Solomon, David and Archdeacon Stephen.

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