page_title: Church of St. Petka in Staničenje
section_title: Frescoes
hierarchical_section_title: Church of St. Petka in Staničenje / The paintings in the temple / Frescoes
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Рођење Исусово, фреска у цркви Свете Петке у Станичењу
context_page_description: The Church of St. Petka in Staničenje is the oldest church in Pirot district, Serbia. In the Middle Ages it was known as a church of St. Nikola, a Bulgarian monument from the beginning of the rule of tsar Ivan Alexander.
  In 1967 the church was declared a Culture Monument of Exceptional Importance in Serbia. It was visited by Radivoje Ljubinković, adviser of the Archeological Institute in Belgrade, in 1972 and later between 1974 and 1977; he conducted a research program on the archeological site, which led to preserving the church's architecture and frescoes in 1979. Final conservation and restoration of painted walls was made between 1975 and 1978 by Zdenka Živković, picture restorer from Belgrade.
  The church is located near Pirot, about 10 kilometers west at the foot of Belava Mountain. It was built on an elevated plateau above the river coast of Nišava, near Staničenje village and the confluence of Temštica, near the main road from Sofia to Niš.
context_section_description: Pictorial program in the church has been preserved in most. Inside the church, frescoes on the barrel vault were destroyed but rest of fresco program can be easily analyzed and they thematically look good. Quality of frescoes, paintings and their details was diminished because of pulverization process which was used on frescoes, which are visible on all parts of the painted ensemble, and because of that process frescoes appear to be covered with a layer of gray scum. Considerable amount of detail, especially on skin tones figure was lost forever. Little has been written so far about Staničenje. In the first report that Radivoje and Marijana Ljubinković published after the archeological and conservative-architectural works on the church, it was pointed to this monument which in science was unknown until that day. Unfortunately, frescoes in village Staničenje were remained largely incomplete.
  Frescoes painted on the barrel vault in the nave were almost destroyed, which contained standing figures of Prophets from Old Testament. That conclusion became according to the small remains of the frescoes on that place of nave, which for iconographic was quite expected. On the southern half, the eastern part of that, on frescoes was illustrated few standing figures so when we look how much frescoes are destroyed in that part of the church, we get a conclusion that at least there have been 10 or more figures on one side of arch, so above 20 in total.
  Small dimension of structure was caused to have reduced program of frescoes in the altar. In altar, as the most visible fact was that was no scene of Holy Communion of the Apostles. The frescoes from the vault and the arch – Ascension of Christ and the Virgin Mary – belong to the already considered of great holidays. Conch of the apse contains unusual representing of the Virgin Mary with Christ on a throne with St. Nikola and St. Kiril the philosopher and in the area below was adoration to the sacrifice of Christ. In the niche prosthesis is half naked dead Christ, and on the walls are three standing figures of St. Deacons, and on the east and south walls are deacon’s frontal busts of two bishops.
  The content of frescoes on the east wall of the narthex consists of the following parts:
  cycle patron of the church,
  frieze of busts of saints,
  standing figures in the first zone,
  High-placed decorative belt.
  Unlike frescoes in the nave, the remaining frescoes in the narthex weren’t protected over a long period and they have been faded and parished during the time. Reading of that frescoesis very difficult and stylistic features can not be tracked. Three upper zones of the frescoes are dedicated cycle of St. Nikola, 
  patron of Staničenje. In the lower part, starting from the north, are located composition of three Dukes in dungeon. Illustration are the part of famous miracles of St. Nikola, but in Staničenje are incompletely preserved. We can only recognize a figure part one of the three wrongly accused Dukes by the emperor Konstantin whom puts them to the dungen, as its noted in written sources of St. Nikola.
caption: The birth of Christ in church St. Petka in Staničenje
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