MOST IMPORTANT CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ADDED TO UNESCO LIST

BIJELJINA, JULY 19 /SRNA/ - The Patriarchate of Peć, the Gračanica Monastery, and the Church of the Virgin of Ljeviš were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 20, 2006.

In 1219, Saint Sava established the first autocephalous archbishopric in the Serbian lands.

It was the medieval Serbian Archbishopric, referred to in historiography as the Žiča, Peć, or Žiča–Peć Archbishopric, and it encompassed all the eparchies in the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia.

At the time of the creation of the Serbian Empire, the Archbishopric was elevated to the rank of a Patriarchate in 1346.

The Church of the Virgin of Ljeviš is an ancient Serbian Orthodox church in Prizren, an endowment of King Stefan Milutin.

The church was built from 1306 to 1307 on the remains of an older cathedral church from the 13th century, which itself had been erected on the site of an even older early Christian church.

For centuries, the church served as the cathedral church of the bishops and metropolitans of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Prizren.

The Gračanica Monastery was built by Serbian King Milutin in 1321 and dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.

The monastery belongs to the Diocese of Raška and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church and is designated as an immovable cultural property and a monument of exceptional importance.