Soko Monastery () is a

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

Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

located at the foot of

Soko Grad Soko Grad ( sr-cyrl, Соко Град, link=no, ) may refer to: Serbia * Soko Grad (Sokobanja), near the spa town of Sokobanja, Serbia * Soko Grad (Ljubovija) Soko Grad ( sr, Соко Град) is a former town and medieval fortification near ...

, on the slopes of

Sokolska planina Sokolska planina (Serbian Cyrillic: Соколска планина) is a mountain in western Serbia, near the town of Krupanj Krupanj ( sr-cyr, Крупањ, ) is a town and municipality located in the Mačva District of western Serbia. The mu ...

near Ljubovije,

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 ...

. The monastery is dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, as well as to St. Bishop Nikolai Velimirović and every summer is the center of the international event ''"Moba"'' which brings together young people from

the world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and who originate from these areas. The monastery was built by Bishop of Sabac-Valjevo Lavrentije and is dedicated to Bishop Nikolaj Lelicki and Zicko.

Church of Monastery

The church of monastery has in the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

part of

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

of St. Bishop Nikolaj. Was built in 1994 and belongs to the late Moravian style. The wood-carved

iconostasis In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis ( gr, εἰκονοστάσιον) is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand t ...

was made in the

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style and gilded with 24-carat gold, while the icons in the Byzantine style frescoes were also donated to the monastery by sister Krstana Tasić, a famous icon painter. The monastery itself has a boarding house with a spacious dining room, a museum and a workshop for monasticism. ''Bishop Nikolaj's House'' is located next to the monastery. It has a library, dining room, 32 bedrooms and other useful rooms.

Cross and ''Way of Faith''

Monastery of St. Nikolaj was built on the plateau below Soko grad or "Nevesta sultanove", the most hated fortress by the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

, whose remains are still visible on one rock of Sokolska planina. On the same rock there is a gilded cross, 12 m high and weighing 2280 kg. The cross was placed 24 March

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, as a monument to the innocent victims of the NATO criminal bombing in 1999, and a gift from the German Horst Wrobel. The road, 2 km long, which leads from the monastery to the cross, is called the ''Way of Faith''. On the way from the monastery to the cross, 10 chapels were built of stone, appropriately painted. One of God's commandments is written in each of them. There is a spring of healing water near the monastery. There is also a chapel of the Holy Father Nikolaj Mirlikijski in the monastery. Monument to Bishop Nikolaj, 3 meters high, is the work of Darinka Radovanović, a sculptor from

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, and a gift from Branko Tupanjac, a Serb from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. In the monastery is the nun by Jovana, born Sibyl Lehr, granddaughter of Alexander Löhr.

Images

File:Manastir Soko 063.jpg File:Manastir Soko 061.jpg File:Manastir Soko 041.jpg File:Sokod sumrak.jpg File:Manastir Soko 054.jpg File:Manastir Soko 067.jpg File:Manastir Soko 009.jpg File:Manastir Soko 024.jpg File:Manastir Soko 069.jpg

References

{{reflist

External links

Миливоје Васиљевић Соко — Град (www.rastko.rs)

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100423214406/http://pravoslavlje.spc.rs/broj/939/tekst/od-gubilista-do-svetilista/ Јован Јањић: Од губилишта до светилишта („Православље“, бр. 939, 1. мај 2006)]
О манастиру на сајту Манастири-Цркве
Serbian Orthodox monasteries