Preparing for the next 700 years
by T.J. | VISOKI DECANI
19/8/2011
DAWN breaks over western Kosovo, and a bearded monk in black, flowing robes walks around the Serbian Orthodox monastery church of Visoki Decani hammering a long wooden board to call the faithful to prayer. But, as the monastery lies in majority-Albanian (and Muslim) western Kosovo, there are hardly any Serbs outside the perimeter wall to heed his call.
Visoki Decani is one of the most beautiful places in the Balkans. The church was built between 1327 and 1335. Legend has it that knights who died at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when the Serbs and their Balkan allies were defeated by the invading Ottoman Turks, are buried here. The church is decorated with more than 1,000 well-preserved frescoes. Because much of the local Albanian population is hostile to the monks, the monastery has been protected by Italian NATO soldiers since 1999. No monk has dared to walk in the nearby town since then.
In June Father Sava, a well-known figure in Kosovo’s public life, became the monastery’s abbot. Once known as the “Cybermonk” because of his early embrace of modern technology to spread the word, he has consistently worked in favour of reconciliation with Albanians.
Twenty years ago the future of the monastery looked bleak. Only five elderly monks lived there. But in 1992 the church invited a number of young monks to take over. Now the monastery is flourishing. It has a farm and produces wine. It houses 24 monks, but more are on the way: a new wing, with 40 modern cells, is under construction, near the site of an old one that burned down in 1948. The monks are preparing for the monastery’s next 700 years.
