Staro Hopovo monastery, Serbian Orthodox monastery in Fruška Gora, Serbia
Staro Hopovo Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery in the Fruška Gora region, 2 km from Novo Hopovo. Its single-nave church, dedicated to St. Panteleimon, is built of light-colored stone blocks with a rough texture, a rounded arched doorway, a small circular recess above, and a taller drum with narrow arched windows topped by a dark dome and cross. A lower wall with recessed arched panels extends to the right, and small benches sit against the base.
According to tradition, the monastery was founded by Bishop Maksim (Despot Đorđe Branković) at the end of the 15th century, between 1496 and 1502. The first reliable record dates from 1545/1546. An earlier timber church dedicated to St. Nicholas collapsed in the 1752 earthquake and was replaced by the present single-nave church dedicated to St. Panteleimon.
The church's patron was changed from St. Nicholas to St. Panteleimon in the 18th century by archimandrite Zaharije Milivojević, who chose his own vow-saint to distinguish it from Novo Hopovo. The 1793 iconostasis was painted by self-taught Irig iconographer Jefrem Isajlović, with icons also by Janko Halkozović. The monastery was called "little monastery" for its modest size.
Staro Hopovo lies in the eastern part of Fruška Gora, about 2 km from Novo Hopovo Monastery. The monastery was abandoned for roughly seventy years before monks returned in 2008 and it reopened in 2014, so it is again a working male monastery. A small chapel stands over the old spring of the Jelenac stream nearby.
Nearby stands a small chapel over the old spring of the Jelenac stream, known as the Izvor Staro Hopovo spring. The monastery also once had a sandstone quarry, opened in 1856, along with four watermills and five mowing meadows. The church was floored with brick and roofed with oak shingles.
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