Corridor: Via Adriatica
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Trijebanj, near Stolac
Type: Christian religious centre
Epoch: Middle Ages
Theme:
World Heritage:

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicolas was erected in 1534 as an endowment of Duke Radoje Hrabren, a member of the Miloradovic – Hrabren family, known in the region from the fifteenth century. The church “ceased chanting” in 1815, but was rebuilt in the mid 19th century by the Mostar merchant Samit Gavrilovic. The church was built of large square stone blocks laid in horizontal rows. Steaci (the massive mediaeval Bosnian tombstones) were built into the foundations here and there. The gabled roof was covered with stone slabs. A bell tower with an open porch at ground level stands in front of the church. The bell tower was constructed in 1857 during the restoration of the church. This church, although of simple architectural concept, perpetuates the concepts of mediaeval architecture, which renewed the Rasha (Old Serbia) tradition. The St. Nicholas church in Trijebanj is similar to those in Gorazde, Smokovac and Scepan Polje. St. Nicholas Church was a single-nave barrel-vaulted building with an elongated rectangular ground plan. The semicircular apse was situated at the east end. The rectangular niches of the diaconicon and proscomidia were built into the lateral walls of the altar area. Rectangular choirs with laterally-placed vaults were built on the side walls, near to the east end. The line connecting the east ends of the two symmetrical choirs marked the limit of the altar space, where the floor of was one step higher than in the nave. The doors and windows were logically placed, with the entrance in the middle of the west wall and the rectangular, very narrow windows in the axes of the apse and choirs. The west wall also had a rosette window of very simple shape and coarse construction.

Council of Europe,RPSEE