Monastery in Oraovica

The monastery is located near the village of Oraovica, two kilometers from Grdelica, on a hill next to the river Južna Morava. The monastery complex consists of two buildings in a terraced courtyard, the church of St. Nicholas and the chapel of St. Procopius, which are glued next to each other, a boarding house and the remains of three monks' cells from the Middle Ages. The church of Sv. Nikola is from the time before 1459, and is mentioned in the Turkish defter in 1516. Chapel of St. Prokopija is semi-arched and built of sandstone from the surrounding area. According to available data, it seems to be older than the church of St. Nicholas. Its interior is painted with frescoes from the 15th and 16th centuries, among which the fresco of Simeon the Serbian stands out for its beauty, which is located on the northern wall of the chapel. According to legend, the monastery was built by an unknown medieval Serbian lord. The monastery was severely damaged during the Nis uprising in 1841. It was renovated twice, the first time in 1866, during the time of Archpriest John, about which there is a plaque with inscriptions that was built into the facade of the west wall of the church, and the second time, in 1938, when the church was rebuilt from the ground up, its appearance completely altered and the interior painted with frescoes. In the same year, the monastery was turned into a parish church. A monastery-type school whose beginnings date back to the eighteenth century also operated within the monastery. In the fire of 2009, the old church konak burned down, when the construction of the new konak began, which was consecrated on July 22, 2011 by His Holiness Patriarch Serbian Mr. Irinej.