Page 31 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage
P. 31
The Incredulity of Thomas, Church of the Holy apostles, south wall of the naos, the Patriarchate of Peć, ca. 1260
This tangible distinction between the well-preserved churches on the one hand, carefully built in stone, and the ruins of fortified towns on the other, once housing the royal court which were constructed using rather more modest materials, moved an anonymous poet to praise the devotion of rulers who spent their riches on endowed
churches5 rather than on palaces in the poem “Where did the treasure of King Nemanja vanish?” Milutin, as we have said, resided in smaller fortresses and adjacent towns; no
5 The specific term zadužbina, or endowed church, denotes in Serbian a building erected za dušu (for one’s soul).
Serbian Medieval art in Kosovo and Metohija
29
