Prophet Elijah frescoes
Eleven 13th-century scenes of his life.
Alex Alishevskikh — CC BY-SA 2.0 · photo by Darko Bulatović — CC0 · Dirgela — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wolfgang Sauber — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher — CC BY-SA 4.0
Morača Monastery, in the upper Morača valley, is a Serbian Orthodox monastery and one of Montenegro's best-known medieval monuments. An inscription over the west portal of its main church records that Prince Stefan, grandson of Stefan Nemanja, founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, built it in 1252. A high wall encloses the Dormition church, the small St Nicholas church and the monks' quarters. Tradition says Stefan built where he saw light fall at night on a pear-tree stump. Early in the sixteenth century Ottoman raiders stripped the lead roof and burnt its timbers; only one side chamber of the sanctuary kept the first frescoes, and the monastery lay empty for decades. Abbot Toma and the local chief Vukić Vučetić restored and repainted it in 1574. The single-nave church, 22 m by 13 m, follows the Raška school, with a dome and Romanesque portals. Eleven thirteenth-century scenes in the diaconicon tell the Prophet Elijah's life, the best known showing him fed by a raven. The narthex holds a Last Judgement of 1577–78, the carved iconostasis dates from 1600–1617, and the St Nicholas church, built around 1635 on an old tower's base, has fifteen scenes of the saint's life. Just below the monastery, the Svetigora stream falls into the Morača. It stands on the main Kolašin–Podgorica road, with parking beside it: 25 km by road south-west of Kolašin (half an hour's drive) or 45 km from Podgorica up the winding Morača canyon. Entry is free; allow an hour with the waterfall. Biogradska Gora National Park lies 22 km north-east as the crow flies.
Eleven 13th-century scenes of his life.
Made between 1600 and 1617.
Just below the monastery.
Morača valley, on the Podgorica–Kolašin road, Kolašin municipality
Its founder, Prince Stefan, grandson of Stefan Nemanja: his relics rest in a sarcophagus in the nave of the Dormition church.
Photos outside are fine. Inside the church, visitors are often told photography is not allowed, so ask before raising a camera, and never use flash near the frescoes or icons.