The iconostasis
Carved and gilded, six tiers high.
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Savina Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery in woodland on Herceg Novi's eastern side, above the mouth of the Bay of Kotor. Two churches of the Dormition, one small and old, one large and 18th-century, stand by the monks' quarters; a third, St Sava's, crowns the hill above. Its treasury ranks among Montenegro's richest. Tradition dates the small church to 1030, but its style suggests the 15th century, when the Kosača lords held the town; its oldest frescoes recall the Kotor painter Lovro Dobričević. In the 1690s, monks from Tvrdoš, near Trebinje, settled here after Venetians blew up their monastery, bringing church treasures, books and a rock-crystal cross linked to St Sava. Donations from as far as Russia funded the great church, built in 1777–1799 by Nikola Foretić of Korčula. Faced in Korčula stone, the great church has an octagonal dome, a bell tower with a Baroque cupola and a carved, gilded iconostasis six tiers high, painted from 1795 by Simeon Lazović and his son Aleksije. A path climbs through the protected Savina oak wood to the little St Sava church, first built around 1200, excavations suggest. The treasury and library keep 14th-century Gospel manuscripts and Athonite, Russian and Italo-Cretan icons. It lies about 1.3 km east of the Old Town as the crow flies: follow the seafront promenade east for some 20 minutes, then turn uphill. Dress modestly, avoid services and allow 45 to 90 minutes. Pair it with the Old Town and Kanli Kula, or a boat to the Blue Cave, 9 km south in a straight line.
Carved and gilded, six tiers high.
Layers of frescoes, the oldest 15th-century.
A hilltop chapel with a lookout over the bay.
Savina, on the eastern edge of Herceg Novi
It takes its name from St Sava, who became the first archbishop of the Serbian Church in 1219 and who, by tradition, built and consecrated the little church on the hill. That church may first have honoured his own patron, St Sabbas the Sanctified; rebuilt in the first half of the 18th century, it was dedicated to St Sava himself.
Its patron feast is the Dormition of the Virgin, which the Serbian Church marks on 28 August, and the hilltop church holds a festive liturgy on St Sava's Day, 27 January. For a quiet visit, choose another day.
