Church of Odžaklija

It is located in the center of Leskovac, in the former Crkvena Mala. According to incomplete data, the church was built on the foundations of the old temple in 1803, and rebuilt in 1839. It was built in the form of a three-nave basilica whose middle nave is vaulted, and the ceiling is flat above the side naves. The vault over the middle nave is made of wooden arches, which partly lean on the longitudinal beams on the pillars, and are partly hung on the horns. Along the entire vault, there are earthen pots at its base, which are arranged at a distance of about one meter with the neck facing the inside of the church. There are such pots in the walls themselves. The pots were built to enhance the sound of the church, ie. serve as resonators. There is a porch on the south and west sides. There is a chimney (chimney) on the northern part of the wall, so the church got its name. There are two legends about the construction of the church during the Turkish rule. According to the first, the Turkish authorities ordered that the church could not be bigger than buffalo skin, so the ingenious people from Leskovac cut the skin on belts and thus bordered the space on which the church would be built. According to another legend, the Christians deceived the Turks, saying that they were building a house for a priest, which is why the building has a chimney, and it became known as the Church of the Chimney. With its architecture, the church belongs to the churches from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is built of adobe with very thick walls and covered with a tile roof. It is spacious, low and wide, one meter buried in the ground, in accordance with the Turkish regulations of that time, which did not allow Serbian buildings to exceed a certain height. The interior is decorated with icons from the second half of the 19th century, which are the work of an experienced icon painter. The iconostasis is made of boxwood woodcuts in the classicist spirit, according to tradition, some Zašma who immigrated from Prilep or Veles worked. In 1854, the first men's primary school in Leskovac was built in the churchyard - "Velikačkolja", popularly known as ČaMitinaškola, and since 1874, the Girl's School. The church was damaged several times, and it was renovated in the 19th and 20th centuries. It suffered the most damage during the bombing in the Second World War and during the catastrophic flood in 1948. The church was completely renovated in 1992, when it was consecrated by the then bishop of Nis, the current Serbian patriarch Irinej.