MOST SIGNIFICANT CHURCHES IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA INSCRIBED ON UNESCO LIST

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

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

This was the medieval Serbian archbishopric, which is referred to in historiography as the Žiča Archbishopric, or the Peć or Žiča-Peć Archbishopric, and it encompassed all dioceses within the Kingdom of Serbia.

At the time of the formation of the Serbian Empire, the archbishopric was elevated to the rank of patriarchate in 1346.

The Church of Our Lady of Ljeviš is an ancient Serbian Orthodox church in Prizren, built as the endowment of King Stefan Milutin.

It was built between 1306 and 1307 on the foundations of an older 13th-century cathedral, 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 Prizren bishops and metropolitans of the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/.

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

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