Savina Monastery (Montenegro)

The Savina Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery of three churches near the city Herceg Novi in the Bay of Kotor, located in thick Mediterranean vegetation in one of the most beautiful parts of the Montenegrin Littoral.

History

First founded in the 11th century, Savina Monastery received the monks who fled Trebinje during the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after which it was established as the head of the Metropolitanate for a time. Savina served for centuries as the summer residence of the Orthodox Bishop of Cattaro.

The small Church of the Assumption is 10m high and 6m wide. Its foundation dates to 1030, although the oldest record of it is from 1648. Its reconstruction began in the late 17th century, with the arrival of refugee monks from Tvrdoš Monastery in Herzegovina, and it was completed in 1831.
The Great Temple of the Assumption was built between the 1777 and 1799, and builder was a master Nikola Foretić from the island of Korčula.
The Church of St. Sava, built by Saint Sava, located outside the monastery complex.

The monastery has a large number of relics originating from the time of the Nemanjić dynasty, including those transferred from Tvrdoš Monastery.
The iconostasis of the church was done by Simeon Lazović and it represents a unique work of Serb Baroque art.

On Đurđevdan in 2005, director Emir Kusturica was baptised in the monastery as Nemanja Kusturica.