Vitovnica Monastery, Orthodox monastery in Petrovac, Serbia

Vitovnica Monastery sits on the right bank of the Vitovnica River beneath a limestone ridge, where the Skop gorge opens to the valley below. The complex includes a church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, residential quarters, and a bell tower.

King Stefan Milutin founded Vitovnica around 1291 after defeating the rebel lords Drman and Kudelin, who had held the Braničevo region from the Ždrelo fortress. The first written record dates from an Ottoman census of 1537, which listed three monks paying high taxes. Abbot Stefan Bojović rebuilt the complex by 1856, and in 1861 the monastery funded a primary school in the village.

The monastery keeps the memory of hegumen Methodius Milovanović, abbot from 1896 to 1902, who founded the Serbian Beekeeping Society in 1897 and the beekeeping journal still published today. The sixteenth-century Vitovnica Gospel, bound in gilt silver in 1557 by goldsmith Vuk Kondo, is held in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.

The site sits in a narrow gorge with steep surroundings, so arriving prepared with sturdy footwear helps. The compact layout makes it easy to see the main areas during a single visit.

The hegumenos Tadej Štrbulović led Vitovnica from 1962 to 1972 and again from 1980 to 1994, then from 1996 to 2003; his grave lies in the monastery courtyard. Under his guidance the brotherhood grew, and his recorded talks circulate among Orthodox readers far beyond Serbia.