Senjak Monastery, Serbian Orthodox monastery in Senjak district, Belgrade, Serbia.
Senjak Monastery, formally Vavedenje of the Most Holy Theotokos, is a Serbian Orthodox women's monastery in Senjak, Belgrade. Its church has an inscribed-cross plan with a central dome and four smaller domes, a five-domed scheme modelled on 14th-century Serbian medieval architecture. The east end has a five-sided apse with the deacon's and prothesis chambers, and the west facade has the richest of three portals, reached by a broad stair.
The monastery was founded as a metochion of Kuveždin Monastery; its foundations were consecrated on 11 August 1935 and the church on 25 October 1936, both rites led by Patriarch Varnava Rosić. The site was chosen after the founder Persida Milenković dreamed three times that the monastery should be built there. The church was designed by Russian émigré architect Ivan Rik with Petar Popović, and the complex was completed in 1937.
The monastery has been a women's community since its founding, home to refugee nuns from Russia after the October Revolution; ten nuns lived here in 1939 and embroidered covers for the altar table and curtains for the patriarchal chapel. During the Second World War the sisterhood cared for 50 refugee children and for the exiled confessor Dositej Vasić. The choir Melodi has sung at liturgies here since 1991 under conductor Divna Ljubojević.
The monastery sits within a residential part of Belgrade and can be reached on foot or by public transport from the city center. Visitors who want to see the interior should keep in mind that religious services take priority and modest clothing is expected.
The grounds hold the tombs of four Orthodox metropolitans, a fact that turns this city monastery into a pilgrimage point for believers from across Serbia. This is not something a casual visitor would expect to find tucked inside a quiet Belgrade neighborhood.
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