The Bešenovo Monastery ( sr, Манастир Бешеново, Manastir Bešenovo, ) was a
Serb 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 whic ...
on the
Fruška Gora
Fruška gora ( sr-Cyrl, Фрушка гора; hu, Tarcal-hegység) is a mountain in Syrmia, administratively part of Serbia with a part of its western side extending into eastern Croatia. The area under Serbian administration forms the country ...
mountain in the northern
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
n province of
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
. It was located by the
Čikoš stream, in the area of the
Bešenovački Prnjavor village. During World War II, the monastery was destroyed in the bombing. At the moment it is being rebuilt.
History
According to legend, the monastery of Bešenovo was founded by Serbian
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Stefan Dragutin
Stefan Dragutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Драгутин, hu, Dragutin István; 1244 – 12 March 1316) was King of Serbia from 1276 to 1282. From 1282, he ruled a separate kingdom which included northern Serbia, and (from 1284) the neigh ...
at the end of the 13th century. The earliest historical records about the monastery date back to 1545, in the Turkish population list. Bešenovo monastery was destroyed in a bombing in 1944, and after World War II its remains have been demolished and stolen. It hasn't been rebuilt since. Before the demolition, a monastery complex consisted of a church, storey quarters on three sides of a church and sheds. Following the reconstruction of the all
Monasteries of Fruška Gora, a reconstruction of Bešenovo was announced.
WWII destruction
When Yugoslavia disintegrated during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
in early April 1941 and the Ustasha were carrying out attacks in Srem area, which also was a part of Pavelic’s Independent State of Croatia, the monks from Vrdnik and Jazak took the relics of the Saint Prince Lazar, Saint Emperor Uroš and Saint Stefan Stiljanovic from those two monasteries to Besenovo. They managed to partially preserve them.
In 1942, the Ustasha looted the Monastery treasury, including the coffins of the three saints and all precious objects they contained. All was taken to Zagreb, and the relics were shaken out of coffins and dispersed across the Monastery. They were saved by professor Radoslav Grujić, who managed to transfer them to the Cathedral Church in Belgrade, with the help of the Germans. Though severely pillaged and unoccupied. All of the monks of Fruska Gora monasteries who failed to flee to Serbia under the rule of General
Milan Nedić
Milan Nedić ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Недић; 2 September 1878 – 4 February 1946) was a Yugoslav and Serbian army general and politician who served as the chief of the General Staff of the Royal Yugoslav Army and minister of war in the R ...
were arrested by the Ustasha and sent to their death camps. Besenovo stood until 4 May 1944. After the Srem partisans placed their headquarters in the Monastery, upon request of the Ustasha headquarters in Zagreb, the Germans practically razed the monastery to the ground on that day with aerial bombs. A reconstruction was carried out in the 21st century.
See also
*
Monasteries of Fruška Gora
*
List of Serb Orthodox monasteries
This is a list of Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Christian Monastery, monasteries in Serbia and near areas (Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Kosovo), also Romania, Hungary, Greece, Germany, United State ...
Gallery
File:Бешеновачки Прњавор - капела - Besenovacki Prnjavor - Chapell.jpg, Chapel built in front of the Bešenovo monastery foundation remains.
External links
Official web site of Bešenovo monasteryМанастир Бешеново (Bešenovo monastery) (Facebook Account)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besenovo monastery
Monasteries on Fruška Gora
Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Serbia
16th-century establishments in Serbia
Buildings and structures demolished in 1944
1944 disestablishments in Serbia
16th-century Serbian Orthodox church buildings
Buildings and structures destroyed during World War II