HIGH DECANI
Decani
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Founded by King Stefan Decanski in the 1280's, the monastery of Decani was where the king took his name from, took holy orders after his overthrow by his son Dusan, and where his remains now rest. The white marble exterior of the church is richly decorated with carvings, showing a strong western, Romanesque influence on the basic Byzantine form. The treasury of Decani holds many manuscripts and icons; one of the few to have remained essentially intact throughout six centuries of turmoil in Kosovo. |
Most of the frescoes in High Decani date from the Byzantine Palaelogian period of the 14th century. The church was completed in 1335, and so most of the frescoes can be dated from shortly thereafter. The complete decorative scheme includes over a thousand compositions, featuring some ten thousand figures. |
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