Monastère de la Présentation-de-la-Mère-de-Dieu-au-Temple, Serbian Orthodox monastery in Leskovac, Serbia
The Monastery of the Presentation of the Mother of God at the Temple in Jašunja is a small single-nave church with a barrel vault, a semicircular apse and an original narthex, built of stone in 1499. A paraklis dedicated to the Life-giving Spring was added to the south wall in the 1860s, together with a wide exonarthex. The narthex preserves frescoes of 1499 and 1686, while the nave itself has no paintings.
The church was built in 1499 by the nun Ksenija with her sisters Teofa, Marta and Marija, and finished in 1500, as recorded in the ktitor inscription at the entrance. An Ottoman law of 1453 forbade new churches, so it likely rose on older foundations. It was burned in 1788 and again during the 1835 unrest, and became a women's monastery on 12 April 1932.
The monastery became a female convent on 12 April 1932, when nuns arrived and walled up the southern paraklis to make a choir area. The paraklis is dedicated to the "Life-giving Spring" and holds a particle of Saint Panteleimon. The refectory frescoes of 1868 show Saint George slaying the dragon and Saint Demetrius spearing the pagan.
The monastery lies in a valley called Manastirska dolina, reached from the village of Babičko via Golema Njiva to Jašunja, 13 km northeast of Leskovac; the stream Bela voda runs past it. It became a women's monastery on 12 April 1932, when the nuns walled up the southern paraklis to make a choir space. The church is small, so groups should keep their voices down inside.
The original frescoes from the 1400s include portraits of the founding sisters, depicting Ksenija presenting a model of the church to the Mother of God. This rare artistic record preserves the memory of the women who established this place.
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