The Saxon church in Novo Brdo - Santa Maria in Novomonte
Authors: Popovic Marko 
Published: January 2020

The site with the remains of the Saxon church, that is, the former Catholic
church of St Mary, lies on a mild slope that descends from the fort to the
southeast, or the village of Bostane. Located at a distance of about 1,200 m
from Novo Brdo?s Lower Town, it was outside this former urban area. It was
intermittently investigated in the 1950s and ?60s, but the complete results
of these works have not been published. With this in mind, after almost six
decades, an attempt was made, based on the remaining fieldwork
documentation, to examine in more detail the complex of this important Novo
Brdo edifice. The investigated remains of the church itself reveal three
stages, or more precisely, construction phases, which reflect the emergence,
renovation and extension of this temple over an extended period of time,
from the first decades of the 14th to the end of the 17th century. The first
and most important stage comprises the construction of the church itself, as
well as the successive adding of masonry tombs and graves in the interior of
the original temple. The following stage includes an extensive renovation
and expansion of the church, while the third and final stage is
distinguished by the construction of a porch in front of the western fa?ade
(Fig. 2). The Saxon church is a single-nave temple of a spacious rectangular
base. On the eastern side, two massive pilasters separated the nave from a
much narrower alter area that terminated in a semicircular apse. This space,
that is, the presbytery, was divided by a pair of similar massive pilasters
into two unequal parts - a shorter western one, which could be labelled as
the choir, and a much larger eastern one, in the centre of which was a
masonry altar mensa in the form of a massive column and two simultaneously
built steps. In front of them, on the same western side, this construction
also included the first, monolithic step, which on the sides had step-like
profiled cubes, the upper surface of which contained regularly carved
circular indentations for the placement of massive candles. Alongside all
four corners of the masonry construction of the alter mensa, steplike
profiled bases carved from breccia were discovered in situ, which most
likely carried the construction of a wooden ciborium. On the southern side,
in the corner between the altar area and the wider nave, a sacristy was
located, which was connected by a door to the presbytery, that is, the
choir. The interior of the Saxon church, which was completely explored,
revealed the existence of several burial horizons, which can,
chronologically and in terms of their general characteristics, be
determined. The oldest burials, which were performed within the original
church, somewhat differ from the later ones, from the time after the
renovation of the temple, as well as the construction of the porch.
Characteristic of the older period are masonry tombs, intended for a number
of burials (Fig. 3). Generally observed, despite the noticeable construction
technique typical of the local area, the Saxon church stylistically
resembled a Gothic edifice. What particularly contributed to this are
stylistically clearly recognisable tall and narrow windows with a broken
arch. Such a stylistic preference, in all likelihood, was also influenced by
a possible solution for the under- roof construction above the unvaulted
nave. The Saxon church in Novo Brdo represents a peculiar phenomenon in the
territory of Serbia. It is immediately apparent that the church?s spatial
solution corresponded to the needs of Roman Catholic worship. However, by
the form of its base it is distinguished from the usual types of Catholic
temples in the coastal areas of medieval Serbia, from where the western
cultural influences flowed. It was clearly noted that the base of the Novo
Brdo church has no close parallels among churches of the Adriatic, which
imposed the need for a more detailed consideration of its spatial solution.
It?s base, with a rectangular nave, a narrower vaulted presbytery and a
laterally positioned sacristy, is characteristic of sacral architecture in a
wider area, from the Netherlands, Southern Germany and Saxony, all the way
to Transylvania - Ardeal. The spread of this type of base from the areas of
its origin, during the 12th and 13th centuries, can be associated with the
Saxon diaspora, specifically the Sassi miners, progressing towards the east.
This was particularly indicated by a considerable number of these temples in
the mining areas of Ardeal, from where the Sassi migrations advanced further
down to the south, namely, to the central regions of the Balkans. The thus
perceived base of the Novo Brdo church, which, on the whole, follows the
spatial solution of Saxon temples, represents the southernmost example of a
sacral edifice of this type in Southeast Europe. The time of the
construction of the Saxon church in Novo Brdo can be quite reliably
determined despite the fragmentarily preserved documentation. The rapid
development of the city was undoubtedly accompanied by religious organising,
first of the Sassi miners, followed by numerous merchants from Adriatic
towns, primarily those from the ?King?s City? of Kotor, and subsequently
also from Dubrovnik. Based on all these findings it can be quite safely
concluded that the first newly erected church in Novo Brdo was precisely the
Saxon church, that is, Santa Maria in Novomonte. It was built, without any
doubt, due to the efforts of the newly settled Sassi mining community. Such
a conclusion can reliably be drawn on the basis of the spatial solution of
the new temple rooted in traditions from the homeland, which were
disseminated by this mining population in all areas of their diaspora. The
very method of building and some construction solutions, which did not
affect the basic concept, were left to local builders. This dating is
further supported by coin finds, the oldest specimens of which originate
from the last decade of the reign of King Stefan Uros II (1282-1321). The
Saxon church, outside the fortified Lower Town, shared the fate of Novo
Brdo. Since it was located on the access route to the city, which was not
especially defended, it could have been exposed to occasional Turkish
attacks during the last decades of the 14th century. With significant
destruction, as evidenced by the results of archaeological excavations, the
earlier period of life of the Saxon church came to an end. It can be assumed
that this took place at the time of the almost two-year long Turkish siege
of Novo Brdo between 1439 and 1441. After the Turkish occupation of Novo
Brdo in 1455, and upon restoring stability in the conquered city, conditions
were created for the renovation of the Saxon church ? Santa Maria in
Novomonte. One letter from Rome, sent to the archbishop of the city of Bar
in 1458, indicates that this was also advocated by Pope Pius II personally.
Major works on that occasion, as shown by archaeological investigations,
were conducted within the area of the nave, which was almost entirely in
ruins. The undertaken renovation provided the opportunity to increase the
size of the church, specifically to extend it westward by 2.70 m. New walls
were built from the ground up on the northern and western side of the nave,
while within the altar area, which was certainly much better preserved, no
traces of any subsequent alterations were noted. Somewhat later, in front of
the renovated church, a wooden porch was added. The Saxon church was also
used for worship during the 16th and the first half of the 17th century. The
archbishop of Bar, Marino Bizzi, during a canonical visitation in 1610,
noted that the church at that time fulfilled all the requirements for
worship. Three decades later, his successor, Archbishop Giorgio Bianchi,
visited the Novo Brdo ?canonical church dedicated to St Mary?, which he says
was in the hands of Christians and that inside ?are graves in which
Catholics are buried??. This is also the last known data regarding this
prominent Novo Brdo temple, which was, without a doubt, finally destroyed
during the Austro-Turkish war at the end of the 17th century.