The Sacral Topography of the Monastery of Treskavac

Abstract

The streches of Mt Treskavac with Zlatovrh, a dominant peak in Pelagonija, and its distinctive rocky landscape have offered a suitable setting for exercising austere monastic practices ever since medieval times. The sacred area formed around the Monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin in medieval times was founded on the antique sacred place of Kolobaise and the temples of Artemis of Ephesus and Apollo Euthanatos. To medieval renovation of the monastery besides the Byzantine and Bulgarian rulers, also contributed the Serbian rulers of the Nemanjić house, kings Milutin, Stefan of Dečani and Dušan. Testimonies to a stay at Treskavac were left by the Serbian nobles – enochiar Dabiživ and tepčija Gradislav. The cult of the Virgin of Treskavac, confirmed in the written sources beginning with king Dušan’s charters to the monastery (1334–1343), left its trace both in the wall-painting of the monastery church and in the activity of manuscript copying cultivated in this monastic centre. Over the centuries, many pilgrims, from the royalty, local lords and members of well-to-do families to priests and monks, Orthodox Christians but also non-Christians, came to show their respect to the Virgin of Treskavac.