If you have been following my previous posts on Belgrade, then you would know that we covered the Kalemegdan Fortress, the Stari Grad, Knez Mihailova streets, and the Republic Square in the first half of the day. After lunch, it was time to visit the Church of St. Sava – a magnificent structure which is located on the Vračar plateau, a plateau on top of the Vračar Hill in Belgrade.

Who was St Sava? Saint Sava (1175–1235), is the patron saint and also a national hero of the Serbian people. He was born as Rastko Nemanja in 1175, to the Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, who founded the Nemanjic dynasty. He ruled the Zachlumia Principality for a while before taking the decision to go to Mount Athos to become a monk. Mount Athos  is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece and is an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. At Athos, Sava, as he came to be known as, established the monastery of Hilandar, along with his father Stefan Nemanja ( who had joined him later after abdicating his throne to his other son) and it became one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Serbian people. The Hilandar Monastery  is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. When Saint Sava returned to Serbia, he was consecrated as the first Archbishop of Serbia. Sava died in 1236 after his exceptional second pilgrimage to the Holy Land (the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River), Egypt and Mount Sinai, in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. He was later canonized and named the patron saint of Serbian schools and school-children.

History of the Church of St. Sava: After his death, there were more events that unfolded in Serbia. In 1594, Serbs rose up against Ottoman rule in Banat, during the Long War (1591–1606) that spanned 13 years. It was known as the uprising in Banat and this rebellion was organized and led by Serbian Orthodox bishop Teodor of Vršac and Sava Temišvarac (a Serbian military commander) against the Ottomans, using the portrait of Saint Sava on their war flags. The uprising led to the Serbs taking over several towns, however, they were soon crushed by the Ottomans. The relics of Saint Sava ( war flags) were burnt by the Ottomans as a retaliation on the Vračar plateau in Belgrade. The painting of the scene Stevan Aleksić, is kept in the National Museum of Belgrade. On the 300th anniversary of the burning of Saint Sava’s body, a group of Serbian Orthodox believers founded the Society for the Construction of the Cathedral of Saint Sava on Vračar with the idea of building a cathedral on the site. Initially a small church was constructed, but soon an ambitious search began to make a grand design.

Amidst controversies, there were two design competitions held. Five years after the 2nd competition that was held in 1932, the Committee unexpectedly announced that the second-prize entry and the runners-up were chosen to be combined for the final project. That was followed by the similarly unexpected suggestion that the new cathedral should be reminiscent of Haghia Sophia in Istanbul. Bogdan Nestorović and Aleksandar Deroko were finally chosen to be the architects, who designed the Church in the post-Byzantine style. The constructions faced many hiccups, especially during the 2nd World War. Later, there was no political consensus in socialist Yugoslavia to continue construction. It was only in 1984 that the construction of the temple continued.

The exterior of the church has white marble cladding, giving it a pristine look. Polished Volakas marble from Kavala, Greece, was used for the façade.  It has a major central dome, as can be seen in the picture, and 13 smaller domes, 5 sub-domes and 5 small domes on the apse ( the semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault). The interior of the church can fit in up to 10,000 people. The upper zone of the church consists of three choir galleries of 1444 sq m. What is most stunning is the mosaic designs and decorations. The mosaic decoration are in golden tone and form most part of the walls. In front of the temple there is a monument to Saint Sava. The monument was cast in bronze and is the work of Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Kilikov.

I leave you with some pictures, though I must say that pictures do no justice to the beauty of the Church.