Crna Reka Monastery

The monastery of Crna Reka ( Crna Reka serb. Manastir / Манастир Црна Река, German transcription about how the monastery on the Black River ) is a rock monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Sandžak region or in the Raska district near the border with the autonomous province of Kosovo.

Location

The facility is located in the canyon of the river Crna Reka, on the slopes of Mokra Gora. The nearest communities are Novi Pazar, Kosovska Mitrovica and Rožaje. The monastery is surrounded by deep gorges and heavily wooded forests. It was built at a place where the river Crna Reka strayed above the monastery in underground passages to flow out after a few hundred meters back off the ground. Thanks to its hidden and inaccessible location, the monastery was spared through the centuries of raids and ravages of war, so that it is still present in its original appearance. Even in the Serbian public was known about the monastery only little. The locals in the area, Christian and Islamic faith, the monastery serves as a place of pilgrimage. Administratively heard today the monastery with about 28 monks to his eparchy of Raszien - Prizren.

History

The first known monastic settlements date from the 13th century, the canonized by the Orthodox Church Peter Koriški led a lonely life here. Later, also canonized Joanikije Devički moved with his monks to Crna Reka, before he moved into what is now Kosovo and founded the monastery Devič. Who were the founders of today's monastery, is no longer known - at least the construction in the 13th or the 14th century is dated.

During the Ottoman rule the monastery served as a hiding place for the church often important relics. In the 18th century, a writing room is occupied, which dealt with transcribing of liturgical books. Also a convent school should have existed, for whose existence there is no reliable evidence.

Beginning of the 20th century, the first boarding school in the entire northern Kosovo was founded in the monastery, which was abandoned later and serve their rooms today the monastery. Nowadays, there is a church of the monastery complex rehabilitation center for drug addicts.