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UVAC MONASTERY
HISTORY AND LEGENDS
- One of the most unaccessible medieval monasteries in our country, a real empire
of stones and snakes is Uvac Monastery or Vuvac, the name which could be met in
some scanty sources. It is situated on the river having the same name, at the
foot of the Priboj's Crni Vrh (Black Peak) on the southwestern side and below
the slopes of the mountain Zlatibor on the northeast. It is quite certain that
a very long time ago a small church was erected on the border between despotism
and medieval Bosnia, representing a special barrier against Bogomil heresy and
penetrating Islam. Later, economically strengthened fraternity started to restore
and widen the modest temple. Therefore, in the first decades of the 17th century,
at the time of patriarch Pajsije, it represented the monumental monastery complex
with all accessories, lodging houses and good economy. Enlarged and widened temple
with rectangular choirs must certainly have found its models in the imperial lauras
to which Vuvac was direcltly connected.
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H i s t o r y
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| 1. Excavation site before beginning of the
works (June 1994)
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- Vuvac Monastery is not quite unknown to our cultural history. It is well-known
that many travellers, chance guests, as well as high church dignitaries, visited
it in the period of its greatest ascent in the first half of the 17th century.
It is also known that Uvac has been destroyed and restored several times, but
it was not recorded when it had experienced the last cataclysm, since after that
it was not restored till our time. Together with disappearance of the monastery,
for a great number of years vanished also the life in exotic and pleasant valley
of the river Uvac. Interruption in cultural and spiritual continuity began at
the time when this region was settled by people who came from distant places and
had only fragmentary knowledge about Uvac Monastery. Disappearance of life in
Uvac, sufferings and destinies will probably stay forever behind a veil of secrecy.
Since the Serbian culture from that time was of oral and epic character, the history
of Uvac was also most often replaced by stories handed down from generation to
generation. As if it were our destiny that the most important events should stay
in the epic memory, that miraculous institution from which we gathered our first
knowledge.
- The oldest written trace about Uvac Monastery has been found on the pages
of an Old gospel dated in 1622. In that way we found out that the book was given
as a present to "...Hramu precistije na reci Vuvcu..." i.e., "Sija knjiga monastira
Vuvca hrama Rozdenstva Presvetije Bogorodice. Kto poimi da je otnimi ot svetago
monastira da e proklet ot Gospoda i Precistie Bogomatere i vsih svetih bogougodnika
kroma Sabora manastirskago..."
- The next script from 1664 provides more data about some contributors, in fact
it states their names and kinship. At the same time we found out that the head
of the monastery, a certain Kir Gerasim, who had been staying at Uvac during following
decades, probably contributed to remarkable ascent and prosperity of this spiritual
centre. The script from 1664 runs like this: "Da se zna, kako prilozi siju bozanstvenuju
knjigu glagolemije evangelije Presvetije Bogomatere rab boziji Milinko i podruzije
jego Marija i sin jego Atanasije i unuk jego Obrad i snaga jego Sara i dasti jego
Sara. Za svoju dusu i za vecni pomen i da im nepremjeno sluzi i da se svrsavaju
svete tajne snjom i sa htitori svoju mazduju a spodvigom otca jeremonaha Kir Gerasima
s bratijami. Sije bi v leto 1664..."
- In the script recorded eighteen years later it could be seen that even then
the head of Uvac Monastery was above mentioned Kir Gerasim, and that in 1682 he
visited metropolitan Teofan of Skopje. According to some data it was not the only
visit to this metropolis. It is also possible that Gerasim came from the southern
regions, i.e., that he was a Greek and as a prior of Uvac had been staing in Stari
Vlah for many decades. Free translation of the script runs like this: "...Da se
zna kako pride proiguman Kir Gerasim k svestijemu mitropolitu skopskome Kir Teofanu
i prilozi mitropolit siju knigu glagoljemu liturgiju v manastir Vuvac i podpisa
se leto bitije 1682 meseca maja v gradu Skopju..."
- One outstanding personality of the Serbian church spent some time in this
monastery under Crni Vrh (The Black Peak). That was the metropolitan Josif from
Timisoara, and it is supposed that he was responsible for hiding the treasure
which belonged to Banja Monastery near Priboj, probably before expected Turkish
invastion. The script dated from 1692 is of great importance for the destiny of
already mentioned monastery treasure and is worded like this: "Siju duse spasuju
i bozanstvenu knjigu prilozih az smireni mitropolit Temisvarski v hram presvjete
Vladicice nase Bogorodice v monastir glagolemi Vuvac. I aste kto pokusit se otnimiti
ot svetago mesta, da mu e prokleto ot gospoda Boga i Preciste Bogomatere i vsih
svetih. Amin v leto 1692 godine..."
- A fact from the end of the 17th century refers to the monastery of Uvac, but
indirectly. Namely, that script imform us that a monk from Uvac some time later
became even the bishop. That was Hristofor Dimitrijevic, known to be elected as
the bishop of Backa on April 23rd, 1710. Unfortunately, this source does not provide
information about the time when Dimitrijevic came to Uvac or where from, but according
to available data, those were the last decades of the 17th century, when the monastery
became a live spiritual centre, as already mentioned.
- Almost during the whole 18th century Uvac Monastery had been covered with
a veil of secret. There are naither data about destructions and sufferings nor
about disappearance of life from the pleasant valley by the river having the same
name. However, it is very likely that they really happened in the the first decades
of the 18th century when a great number of places of worship in Stari Vlah in
Serbia were burnt and demolished.
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R e s e a r c h e s
- An important source, which only partly refers to Uvac Monastery, is unpublished
manuscript of the restorer of Banja Monastery near Priboj, Dionisije Popovic,
dated from 1857, who visited this complex, gave a precise location and partial
description. The following has been said about Uvac Monastery: "...Od Priboja
na Uvac rjeku po sata,uz Uvac na srpsku granicu jedan cerek (15 minuta). Preko
ima manje - samo edan sat uz tu rjeku Uvac srpska granica. Na granici i obstini
jablanickoj zove se Cisti Do i Manastirina. Tu e bio metoh manastira Banje. Manastir
se ednim kubetom, naokolo porta od kamena. U porti mnogo zdanja sto su pribavili
monasi i eremonasi i narod koi e dolazio manastiru da se pokloni. Oko manastira
ima i sada basce, voca svakojaka, vinograda, pomalo nive i livade. To drze Srbi,
nazivaju se Didanovici ali ne zive dobro, buduci jedu ono manastirsko mesto..."
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| 2. Excavation site during works (August 1995)
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- An outstanding researcher of our antiquities, head-priest Jevstatije Karamatijevic,
in the third decade of our century visited the Uvac Monastery complex, trying
to find a legendary "church Janja at Stari Vlah". Enthisiastic about epic memory
of Serbian ethos, Karamatijevic supposed that Janja church, which allegedly had
been built by the Nemanjas, was places somewhere in the region of the Uvac valley.
Believing that such a church really existed, and that it originated from the Middle
Ages, that it was famous for its luxury and wealth, he thought that Uvac Monastery
was that particular old church, which had been built by the Nemanjas. Karamatijevic
found the monastery complex overgrown with bush and woods and partly described
it, precisely stating that "...Narthex - the western part of the temple was six
paces wide and seven paces long. The middle part of the temple without altar was
twice as big. The town around the church is 26 paces wide and 32 paces long. Close
to the middle part, on the right side, there are three rooms built in the ground,
1.5 m deep and 4 m wide. These rooms were divided by separate walls...".
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L e g e n d s
- However, the greatest value of Karamatijevic work is in his legends and stories
which he has written down. Some of those stories refer to the monastery itself,
its destruction, restoration and life. He stated with great precision the numerous
toponyms of the surroundings which represent the indirect way of solving many
unknown things from the past of this whole region. At the end, when he was writing
about the inaccessible place, where the monastery had been erected, the head-priest
Karamatijevic mentioned "magnificent remains of the temple and some other buildings
and town walls.../which/ testify about powerful Christian life that had been flourishing
there...".
- A great number of unknown things, connected with Uvac Monastery are still
open questions. Vivid national memory, that unique interpreter of history, had
been trying to reveal secrets of demolished monastery in the pleasant valley of
the Uvac river. That remarkable center is not just any spiritual centre, but it
used to be one of the greatest ones. Epis interpreters, who maintained historic
consciousness especially at Stari Vlah, considered Uvac Monastery the very "Janja
Church at Stari Vlah", which, for a very long time, had been attracting the attention
not only of the curious people but at the same time arose the interest of the
ethnologists, historians and local cultural workers. Of great importance is the
knowledge that only at Stari Vlah there are five churches for which it is believed
they were dedicted to this mythical female wonder-worker.
- Who is really that female-saint Janja to whom the Serbs had been dedicating
churches, especially in this part of Serbia. Should her origin be traced in the
remaining elements of pagan myth with the Slavs or Janja was just a Christian
symbol? Finally, does Uvac Monastery represent the very Janja Church, which the
folk poet mentioned in the poem "Building of Ravanica" through words of the empress
Milica and which is ascribed to the Nemanjas who had not been squandering their
wealth but used it for erecting a great number of churches:
- "... Sagradise mloge manastire;
- sagradise Visoke Decane
- bas Decane vise Djakovice;
- Pacarsiju vise Peci ravne,
- Studenicu ispod Brvenika,
- Sopocane povrh Raske ladne,
- i Trojicu u Hercegovinu;
- Crkvu Janju u Starome Vlahu..."
- According to some old stories Uvac Monastery is that particular Janja Church,
which used to be unique of its wealth. On Orlic and Orahovica, the monastery had
big flocks of sheep. It is said that milk used to be sent into the monastery economy
for hundreds of years, where cheese and butter were made. All around were the
land belonging to the monastery, orchards and vineyards. Numerous toponyms undoubtedly
tell us of that. On the western part there were spacious meadows known as Bostaniste.
Bukovi potok (stream) was flowing near meadows and close to the Uvac river there
was another meadow called Gradina among the local residents. It was surrounded
by a wall which is at some places well preserved to our time testifying about
the old fortification, probably even older than the monastery itself. Uvac was
undoubtedly an impressive spiritual and economic centre of the whole region.
- Tradition, mostly oral one, had been transmitting from generation to generation,
and once again connected Uvac Monastery with the Nemanjas memorial. That is the
story about Janja, the sister of great district perfect Stefan Nemanja. Her brothers
probably erected a monastery in this remote place, where she became a nun and
spent the rest of her life. When they were descending from the slopes of Zlatibor
toward Uvac, along rocky, narrow paths, and when Janja saw where her brothers
confined her, it is said that her curse was echoing over the surrounding hills...
- Powerful temple in the pleasant valley of the Uvac river was not easy to ruin.
The Turks have tried it several times, but without success. It seems that each
time somebody was killed. Then they were advised that the monastery could be ruined
only by the Serbs. And they found the Serbs, settlers, some Tokovics, who, as
the story says, ruined the monastery quite easily. They were richly awarded for
their service by the Turks, but they were also cursed that their descendants would
become poor and with no male offsprings and that their houses would always be
below the road. Some think that it is the case even today.
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| 3. Reconstruction of the Complex (September
1996)
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- According to some data the family of Didanovic was among the first settlers
in the picturesque river valley after demolition of this Orthodox centre. The
restorer of Banja Monastery near Priboj, Dionisije Popovic said that they lived
badly because they "eat that monastery place". There are some stories which tell
that on Christmas eve, a person with a crown on his head appeared in a dream of
one of the Didanovics and revealed him the secret of the church treasure, but
advised him to use it for rennovation of the monastery. As the Didanovic was indecisive,
the same person used to appear in his dream in the period of two years more, twice
on Christmas eve.
- It is said that before his death this undecisive inhabitant of Uvac decided
to reveal his secret to his son. However, the impatient young man was not resolute
enough in his intention to restore the monastery, but made up his mind to dig
up the treasure immediately. The day before the work should have been finished,
it was raining heavily, making a great number of brooks down rocky regions, which
rolled down the ground removing even the mark where the treasure had probably
been hidden. People said that watre rolled down the Kaludjerska fountain from
the hill and placed it at the very spot where it is standing now. Some time after
this strange event, people gave up searching for monastery treasure. It was known
for sure that under the influence of widely spread stories, searching for the
treasure had been continued later, but without significant results. Life in the
immediate surroundings of the Uvac river had been going on almost through the
whole 19th century. The monastery was in ruins and only some rare travellers and
Orthodox priests visited it from time to time. Tradition of the monastery fair
has been revived and on Mala Gospojina the churchyard was collectively visited;
that was the celebration of Uvac Monastery. Some traditional stories, that live
folk memory and miraculous interpreter of the past, tell us that the inhabitants
had been successful while the monastery fair was held and that life was revived
in the whole region. Later, the reason is unknown, the fair was forgotten, and
since then they have not had success "ni u malu ni u svladu"...
* * *
- Destruction of the monastery and disappearance of life from the pleasant valley
of the Uvac river is possible reason we are now deprived of important historical
data from the past of this outstanding spiritual centre.Existence of the monastery
was a condition for survival of the Orthodox inhabitants in this picturesque valley.
Dying out of life for a longer period of time, then coming of some new refugees,
but after a considerable time, meant a particular interruption in the historical
and cultural continuity. Numerous important data and traces faded out with those
who left Uvac or ran away from it or most often took them into grave.
© 1997,1998. Copyright by National Museum, Uzice,
Yugoslavia
Design: DataVoyage IDS, Uzice, February
'97.
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