Vitus of Kotor, also Vito and Vita (c. 1275 – after 1335) was an architect from Kotor who is known for the construction of the

Visoki Dečani The Visoki Dečani Monastery ( sr, Манастир Високи Дечани, Manastir Visoki Dečani, sq, Manastiri i Deçanit) is a medieval Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery located near Deçan, Kosovo. It was founded in the first half of ...

monastery.

Biography

He was born in Kotor, at the time part of the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...

(now Montenegro) and studied construction in Kotor where he joined the Franciscan monastery and became a monk and a master-builder with his own workshop. His organizational skills and ability to gather the best craftsmen from surrounding regions, including Dubrovnik (at the time part of the Republic of Ragusa), earned him a reputation. He was personally commissioned by Serbian kings

Stefan Milutin Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&nd ...

and Stefan Dečanski to build

. His full name is recorded variously by historians, Vito Trifunov (of Tryphon, referring to an ancestor) Čučola or possibly Čuča, Kotoranin (of Kotor). This is based on an inscription on the portal of the southern gate of Dečani, but only 20th century work by historians Risto Kovijanić and Ivo Stjepčević correlated the person to the records in Kotor. The initial construction on

Monastery occurred between 1327 and 1335 during the reign of Stefan Dečanski. The monastery is situated in the valley of the Bistrica river surrounded by the mountains and forests of the

Prokletije The Accursed Mountains ( sq, Bjeshkët e Nemuna; sh-Cyrl-Latn, Проклетије, Prokletije, ; both translated as "Cursed Mountains"), also known as the Albanian Alps ( sq, Alpet Shqiptare), are a mountain group in the western part of the B ...

mountain range in the disputed territory of Kosovo. Today's analysis of the sculpture and architecture of Dečani offers many clues to the authorship of sculptures of saints and a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

in Banjska and series of churches in Kotor (including a basilica) of the 14th century that is attributable to Fra Vito from Kotor who built a similar mausoleum in Dečani. Vitus is credited for the construction of the monastery church at Dečani which began in early 1327. The church was dedicated to Christ Pantocrator. King Stefan Dečanski commissioned the construction to a group of master-builders headed by master Vitus of Kotor and under the supervision of Archbishop, later Saint, Danilo II. In 1330, Stefan Dečanski granted a charter for the monastery with an endowment to support the monastery in perpetuity. Stefan's remains are preserved in the Dečani church in a coffin at the head of the altar. Vitus of Kotor is also credited with

Our Lady of Ljeviš Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...

, an early 14th-century Serbian Orthodox church in

Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...

, King of Serbia commissioned its rebuilding and expansion in 1306 on the site of a Byzantine basilica of the 11th century. The Byzantine church had three naves to which Milutin added two more. The architecture of the rebuilt church utilized Late Byzantine architecture through the use of five domes, monumental inscriptions in its exterior, narthex interior. and the Byzantine belfry. Milutin chose Vitus of Kotor as the master-builder of the complex and told him to utilize Byzantine elements. Another aspect of the frescoes of ''Bogorodica'' is their depiction of Orthodox

councils A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

as a symbol that referred to the challenges the Orthodox Church faced against the Roman Catholic Church, a situation common in the borderlands between Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the Balkans.

was the official name in Milutin's period although the church was popularly known as the Church of

Saint Petka Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans (also known as: Света Петка Българска, Petka of Bulgaria, Petka of Serbia, Paraskeva of Serbia, Paraskeva the Serbian, Paraskeva of Belgrade, Parascheva the New, Parascheva the Young, grc, Ὁσ ...

. After the Turkish conquest, it was turned into a mosque and the name was changed to ''Fatih Cami'' or

Mehmed Mehmed (modern Turkish: Mehmet) is the most common Bosnian and Turkish form of the Arabic name Muhammad ( ar, محمد) (''Muhammed'' and ''Muhammet'' are also used, though considerably less) and gains its significance from being the name of Muh ...

Fatih's mosque. It is now under the protection of UNESCO. He died in Kotor.

Biography

References

Further reading