Monastery of St. Mark of Koriša

Saint Mark Koriški Monastery Црква Светог Марка Коришког
Basic information
Location	Kosovo
Geographic coordinates
Affiliation	Serbian Orthodoxy
District	Prizren
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Damaged in summer 1999
Heritage designation	Protected Monuments of Culture Serbia
Leadership	Serbian Orthodox Church
Architectural description
Completed	around 1467
Specifications
Materials	Stone

Monastery of St. Mark of Koriša (Serbian: Манастир Свети Марко Коришки) was a Serbian Orthodox monastery, built in 1467, located in Koriša, Prizren, Kosovo. The entire complex was declared a Protected Monument of Culture in 1959, and it is de jure protected by Republic of Serbia. It was a single-nave church, built on a rectangular foundation. It was severely damaged after the end of the Kosovo War in 1999.

History

The ruins of the monastery of St. Mark of Koriša stands on a rocky outpost above the Koriša river near the village of Koriša, near Prizren. According to preserved documents, the monastery was built by Jovan and Branko Vlahić in 1467, and it was a metochion (granted church land) to the Hermitage of St. Peter of Koriša, built in the 13th century. The monastery is mentioned in the Ottoman defter of 1520. It was abandoned in the 16th century, and reactivated in the 17th century. In 1765, monk Neofit brought "many books from Dečani".

In 1779, Partenije Popović was a monk at the monastery, whither he brought several important medieval books and manuscripts. In 1859, a schoolteacher in Prizren, Nikola Musulin, found Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire. The following year the charter of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels also issued by Stefan Dušan was found in St. Nicholas Church of Koriša. On the western side, above the rock, a belfry with two bells was added in 1861 as a foundation of Sima Andrejević.

After that, monastery was almost abandoned up until 1995, when monastery life restarted. In 1999, the monastery was vandalized and set on fire, when the preserved fragment of the original fresco was destroyed. The monastery had a valuable library. Hermitage of St. Peter Koriški is near this Monastery.

Gallery

• 

  One of the oldest manuscripts of Dušan's Code, "Prizren Manuscript" was kept in Saint Mark Koriški Monastery

See also

• Hermitage of St. Peter Koriški
• Cultural Property of Great Importance
• Tourism in Serbia
• Prizren

Notes and references

Notes:

a.

^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has been recognised as an independent state by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.

References: