Blagoveštenje Rudničko Monastery, Orthodox monastery in Stragari, Serbia

Blagoveštenje Rudničko Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox women's monastery on the northern slopes of Mount Rudnik, by the Blagoveštenska River about 8 km from Stragari. Its church joins three parts built from the 14th to the 19th century: a small 15th-century nave with a deep apse, a tall square narthex, and an 1844 bell tower about 18 m high.

Founded around 1400, the monastery is first documented in Ottoman tax records of 1467. It was abandoned during the Great Migration of 1690, revived by Studenica monks under Archimandrite Grigorije from 1791, damaged in the Austro-Turkish war and rebuilt in 1795. On 21 April 1814 Serbian notables met here and sent a letter to Tsar Alexander I; in 1858 Prince Miloš donated a gold cross commemorating that assembly.

The monastery is now a women's community of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Šumadija. Its ktetor is unknown; tradition links the foundation to the reign of Prince Lazar, around 1400. Archimandrite Serafim Miljković served as spiritual father from 1984 to 2020. The 1690s iconostasis with gilded carving, restored over three years at the National Museum of Serbia and returned in 2001, is the piece to look for.

The monastery lies about 8 km from Stragari, on the northern slopes of Mount Rudnik beside the Blagoveštenska reka. The church combines a 15th-century nave, a 17th-century narthex and an 1844 bell tower about 18 m high. The complex is walled and active; women live there, so dress modestly and keep to areas open to visitors.

The porch added in the 17th century rises about nine metres, far taller than the original 15th-century nave at five and a half metres; monks likely built it high to hide valuables in its upper sections, and traces of that hiding place are still visible. The church's carved iconostasis, made around 1690, was restored over three years at the National Museum of Serbia and put back in 2001.