page_title: Rakovica Monastery
section_title: 20th and 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: Rakovica Monastery / History / 20th and 21st century
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Манасир Раковица на периферији Београда This is a photo of Cultural Heritage site of Serbia number раковица12
context_page_description: Rakovica Monastery is the monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church, within the Archbishopric of Belgrade and Karlovci, located in the municipality of Rakovica in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel.
  Mentioned in the 16th century, the Rakovica Monastery is the oldest holy object in Belgrade, where the regular service is still being held.
  The central part of the coat of arms of the Rakovica municipality is occupied by the representation Rakovica monastery.
context_section_description: In 1905 the Monastic school started to work in the monastery, the first of that kind in Serbia. For its needs in 1925 the new building was erected, the so-called "Plato's konak". The building was designed by the Russian architect Valery Staševski in the Serbo-Byzantine Revival style.  The school was active until 1932, when it was transferred to the Visoki Dečani monastery in Metohija.
  The monastery avoided the damaging in both World Wars. During World War II, Patriarch Gavrilo for a short period was held in detention in Rakovica by the occupational German army. Until the war, area around the monastery was one of the main excursion sites of the Belgraders. Partially because the area was heavily forested with an old ("ancient"), thick forest, and partially because of the artificial Lake Kijevo. During the war both the forest and the lake disappeared: the forest was cut while the lake was drained from 1941 to 1947.
  From 1947, Rakovica was the seat of the Orthodox theology faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1958 the faculty was relocated to the newly finished educational facilities, including the campus, in the part of the Karaburma neighborhood, which today became known after the Serbian name for the seminary, Bogoslovija. As the new location of Bogoslovija was previously a hospital for the children with mycosis, the children were relocated to the Rakovica monastery. The hospital was later moved out but during the existence, the church was fenced by the wire from the konak.
  Patriarch German decided to turn the monastery into a female one, or convent, in 1959. He acquired the sewing machines so the abbesses sewed the clothes and garments to support the monastery.
  During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, in the process of constant, everyday heavy bombing of the Straževica hill, the monastery was damaged, especially the front wall of the old church, that is, its front wall was damaged again.
  In 2002, the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was built within the complex.
  In 2007 at the old building location, the archaeological researches were done, and then again from 16 July till 16 August 2008, with the aim of confirming the assumption that the building in question is actually the old monastery building. The report states that the required results "were missing", and that the "existence of medieval necropolis in this area, as well as the remains of the honourable table...indicate the existence of the sacral object in that area, although its material remains have not been asserted so far."
  Though open for visits, after the burial of Patriarch Pavle in 2009, in order to preserve the peace in the complex, the weddings and baptisms are no longer performed in the monastery.
caption: View from the garden
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