Karan ( sr-cyr, Каран) is a village in western

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, located in the municipality of

Užice Užice ( sr-cyr, Ужице, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Zlatibor District in western Serbia. It is located on the banks of the river Đetinja. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 59,747. The Cit ...

, in the

Zlatibor District The Zlatibor District ( sr, / , ) is one of eight administrative districts of Šumadija and Western Serbia. It is located in the western, mountainous part of Serbia. The district was named after the mountain region of Zlatibor. According to t ...

. According to the 2002 census, its population numbered 582. There is a 14th-century

Serbian Orthodox church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

located in the village, called the White Church.

History

The village was established in the area of an earlier Roman settlement called ''Malvestatium''. The White Church in Karan was built in 1332 by local ''

župa A župa (or zhupa, županija) is a historical type of administrative division in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, that originated in medieval South Slavic culture, commonly translated as "parish", later synonymous "kotar", commonly translate ...

n''

Petar Brajan }, fl. 1340–42) was a Serbian ''župan'' (count) that built the White Church in Karan, Užice, as a family funeral church. The church was erected on site of an older temple from the 10th century, mentioned in a charter edited by Byzantine Empero ...

, as a family funeral church. The church was erected on site of an older temple from 10th century, mentioned in charter edited by Byzantine Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

in 1020. Inside there are portraits of Brajan and his family and of the Serbian Emperor

Stefan Dušan Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош IV Душан, ), known as Dušan the Mighty ( sr, / ; circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar (or Emperor) and autocrat of the Serbs, Gr ...

History

See also