Tronoša Monastery

Jugović brothers' fountain

There are no proper historical records which confirm the origin of the monastery and everything known about it is according to the various traditional writings. The monastery was an endowment of King Stefan Dragutin, however, he died in 1316 and the construction was finished by his widow, Queen Catherine in 1317. It was named after three rivers which confluence into one at the monastery (tri reke koje vodu nose, "three water bearing rivers"). The original edifice was looted and razed by the Ottoman Empire several times in the 14th and 15th centuries. It ended up being completely demolished and it is not known what the original monastery looked like.[1]

It was rebuilt on the foundations of the old monastery in 1559. The enterprise was headed by the hegumen Pajsije and monks Arsenije and Genadije. That same year, the Church of the Presentation of Mary was built. Just few years later, a school which transcribed and rewrote the old manuscripts was operational. As an act of retaliation for the attacks of the hajduks in the region, the Ottomans burned it in the early 1800s. It was renovated in 1834 and was painted by Mihailo Konstantinović from Bitola and Nikola Janković from Ohrid.[1]

In 1791, a hieromonk Josif Tronošac transcribed the 1526 Tronoša Chronicle, the most important Serbian literary memorial in the first half of the 18th century. The copy of the chronicle is kept in the monastery, while the original is in Vienna.[1][2][3][4]

Tronoša was badly damaged during the World War I. During the Battle of Cer in 1914, Serbian wounded soldiers were transported to the monastery for medical treatments. After Austria-Hungary occupied Serbia, their army burned the church books. The also destroyed or removed all doors in the complex, which were repaired only in 1923. In August 1941, a local Chetnik rebellion liberated Loznica ("the first town liberated from Germans in the occupied Europe") in the Battle of Loznica, and Tronoša's hegumen Georgije Bojić was active in the planning and conducting of the operation. as an aide to Veselin Misita, in charge of the attack. When German reoccupied the area in October 1941 they burned the monastery books and punched through one of the walls with the cannonball.[1]

The 700th anniversary of the establishment of the monastery (2017)

Hrizostom, Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosna (left), Irinej, Serbian Patriarch (center), and Amfilohije, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral (right), at the 700th anniversary

In the vicinity of the monastery is the Chapel of the Saint Holy Martyr Pantaleon. Below the chapel is the ten-pipe concrete drinking fountain with cold, spring water. Both the chapel and the fountain were also destroyed several times through history. Traditionally, the original fountain is attributed to the mythological Jug Bogdan (based on the historical Vratko Nemanjić, though) and his nine sons, the Jugović brothers, hence the ten pipes. They built the chapel and the fountain in 1388 prior to the Battle of Kosovo. Modern chapel and the fountain were restored in 1968 when the fresco "Leaving to the Battle of Kosovo" was painted on the fountain. The fountain is called "The Fountain of the Nine Jugović".[1]

One of the best known traditions in the monastery is the making of large "plowmen candles". Two are cast each year out of 50 kg (110 lb) of wax and are 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) tall. On the Maundy Thursday people gather in front of the monastery, bring the candles inside the church and light them in front of the icons of Jesus Christ and the Holy Mother of God. They are thought to help to preserve and enhance the harvest, hence the name. The custom of casting the candles and the ceremony of bringing them into the church and lighting them has been placed on the Serbian list of the intangible cultural heritage.[1]

As Vuk Stefanović Karadžić learned to write in the monastery, "coming to school from the nearby Tršić through the forest", a section of the monastery is adapted into the "Museum of the Vuk's early schooling". Today, Tronoša is a female monastery. In 2017 it officially celebrated 700th anniversary.[1]

The monastery has been protected since 22 December 1948 and was declared a cultural monument of great importance in 1979.[1][5]