Bosnian Medieval Monastery Awakens After Centuries of Ruin

Bosnian Medieval Monastery Awakens After Centuries of Ruin

Gostovići, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 5, 2025

Photo: mitropolijadabrobosanska.org     

The Diocese of Dabar and Bosnia of the Serbian Orthodox Church recently shared the story of a monastery that is being resurrected from the ruins.

“The case of the Udrim Monastery in Gostović near Zavidovići leaves every visitor breathless,” the diocese writes, “especially those who come with faith and love, not because of anything particularly special about it, but from the very fact that it miraculously emerges, not only from the ground and from its foundations, but also from its distant and still unknown past.”

“Could anyone have assumed or thought just 10 years ago that a ruin would bloom? Certainly not.”

On Sunday, February 2, His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabar and Bosnia visited the monastery to inspect what has been done so far and to discuss the plans for this year, including covering the church and erecting the central dome. The Metropolitan also instructed how to begin organizing and arranging the entire area around the monastery to bring it to a state that will be appropriate for this holy place.

Photo: mitropolijadabrobosanska.org Photo: mitropolijadabrobosanska.org     

The diocese writes more about the ruin and revival of the monastery:

The monastery church was even worse than the ordinary ruins that were and still are scattered throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a ruin of desecration, mockery, spitting, and rejection. We know all this today from living testimony of living people…

Today we know more than yesterday. Each day something new emerges from the monastery’s tragic and suppressed past. Thus we learned that a certain family usurped the monastery’s land and illegally sold it to a certain Muslim from Livno. The circumstances of his act are not yet fully known, but the misfortune that he brought upon this holy place is certainly known. Neither the first nor the last. Many used the time of communism and godlessness to seize not only church property but also that of their near and distant neighbors.

And who can compare to God? He doesn’t forget or abandon His holy places where His faithful servants once prayed to Him and were sanctified by Him. Once a holy place, always a holy place. We have no right to forget or abandon our holy places. This is the obligation of every Christian wherever they may be. Near or far, but everyone can and must participate in discovering not only our holy places but also our landmarks and our deeds.

So it once was with the ruins of Jerusalem. The Babylonian king destroyed it and turned it into ruins, but when God’s time of punishment was fulfilled, God sent His servant Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. And everything was restored and bloomed like a lily in the desert. And our Udrim is now growing and being restored like a lily by the road, bringing joy to the hearts and souls of all those who hold holy places dear.

The Udrim monastery, originally founded as an endowment by King Dragutin Nemanjić, represents a significant piece of medieval religious heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Though its exact date of destruction remains uncertain, local tradition attributes its ruin to the Austro-Turkish war, after which it lay abandoned for approximately 300 years.

Historical records indicate that before its destruction, the monastery was a thriving religious center in the 17th century, possessing extensive property including ten vineyards and housing numerous monks. The devastation of the monastery resulted in the loss of its archival materials, leaving many questions about its history unanswered.

It was proclaimed a cultural monument in 1970.

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