page_title: Piva Monastery
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Piva Monastery / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Piva Monastery, Montenegro
context_page_description: Piva Monastery is located in Piva, Montenegro near the source of the Piva River in northern Montenegro. Built between 1573 and 1586, it was rebuilt in another location in 1982. It is the largest Serbian Orthodox church constructed during the Ottoman occupation in the 16th and 17th centuries. Noted for its frescoes, the monastery's treasures also include ritual objects, rare liturgical books, art, objects of precious metals and a psalm from the Crnojevići printing press, which was the first in the Balkans. These are displayed in the monastery's museum.
context_section_description: Piva Monastery is located in the village of Piva, just south of  Goransko in northern Montenegro. 
  It is accessible along the E-762 road, on the way to Srbinje. It lies approximately 55 kilometres (34 mi) from Nikšić and is 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Plužine. 
  The monastery was originally located at the source of the Piva River, approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) away from and 100 metres (330 ft) below the junction of the proposed Mratinje Dam, a hydroelectric plant. Begun in 1969 and completed in 1982, the monastery was moved to its current position, which included the removal and replacement of over 1000 fresco fragments, covering 1,260 square metres (13,600 sq ft).
  Piva has the unique distinction of having been built with the permission of the Ottoman rulers over a period of a little more than a decade, from 1573 to 1586. Its founder, the Serbian Metropolitan of Herzegovina, later the Serbian Patriarch, Savatije Sokolović, was a kinsman of the Grand Vizier, Mehmed Pasha Sokolović (also known as Sokollu Mehmed Pasha), who was kidnapped from his Serbian home as a boy and rose to become one of the most renowned statesmen to three sultans -- Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim I and Murad III.  As a result, the church at Piva monastery contains a fresco depicting Savatije and Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, a rarity for a Christian church adorned with a portrait of a convert.
caption: Location in relation to the Piva River, E-762 road, and villages of Goransko and Plužine
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