page_title: Hilandar
section_title: Ottoman and modern period
hierarchical_section_title: Hilandar / Ottoman and modern period
caption_attribution_description: English: Reconstruction of the Hilandar in 2006Српски / srpski: Rekonstrukcija Hilandara u 2006
context_page_description: The Hilandar Monastery is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It was founded in 1198 by Stefan Nemanja and his son Saint Sava. St. Symeon was the former Grand Prince of Serbia who upon relinquishing his throne took monastic vows and became an ordinary monk. He joined his son Saint Sava who was already in Mount Athos and who later became the first Archbishop of Serbia. Upon its foundation, the monastery became a focal point of the Serbian religious and cultural life, as well as "the first Serbian university". It is ranked fourth in the Athonite hierarchy of 20 sovereign monasteries. The Mother of God through her Icon of the Three Hands, is considered the monastery's abbess.
context_section_description: The Byzantine Empire was conquered in the 15th century by the Ottoman Turks and their newly established Ottoman Caliphate. The Athonite monks tried to maintain functioning relations with the Ottoman sultans and following Murad II's occupation of Thessaloniki in 1430 they pledged their obedience to him despite violence and lawlessness that ensued. A number of Serbian monks at the time moved from Hilandar to Serbia. To alleviate tensions with his Christian subjects, Murad II had to recognize property rights and privileges of all the monasteries, which in 1457 Sultan Mehmed II additionally confirmed and secured following the 1453 Fall of Constantinople. Thus, the Athonite independence was somewhat guaranteed.
  Nobleman from what is today Albania John Castriot donated tax proceeds collected from villages Rostusa and Trebiste in Macedonia to the monastery in 1426. His sons, including The fierce fighter against the Ottoman occupation George Castriot also known as Skanderbeg, were among the remaining local Christian Orthodox aristocrats supporting Hilandar. As John Castriot and his sons purchased adelphates securing their rights to retire and reside in the monastery, the Hilandar Saint George Tower, became known as the "Arbanasi Tower" (Serbian: Арбанашки пирг) in their honor. Upon retiring and taking monastic vows, John Castriot's son Reposh joined the Hilandar brotherhood where he died on July 25, 1431. John Castriot followed his son and also joined the monastic community in Hilandar as monk Joachim. He died in the monastery on May 4, 1437.
  Following the fall of the Serbian Despotate to the Ottoman Turks in 1459, Hilandar lost major guardians and benefactors as its brotherhood looked for support from other sources. In 1503, the wife of Serbian Despot Stefan Brankovic, Angelina Brankovic asked for the first time Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III Ivanovich to protect the monastery. Deputy hegumen Paisios with three other monks visited Moscow in 1550 and inquired about help and protection at High Porte in Istanbul from Russian Tsar Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible. He took monastery Hilandar under his personal protection and built the new monastic cells. In March 1556, Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, whose grandmother descended from the noble Serbian family of Yakshich, also granted the Hilandar Monastery a plot of land with all necessary buildings in Moscow within a short walking distance from the Kremlin.
  In the 17th century the number of Serbian monks dwindled, and the disastrous fire in 1722 saw a decline: in his account of 1745, Russian pilgrim Vasily Barsky wrote that Hilandar was headed by Bulgarian monks, even though the presence of Serbian monks was also noted. Ilarion Makariopolski, Sophronius of Vratsa and Matey Preobrazhenski had all lived there, and it was in this monastery that Saint Paisius of Hilendar began his revolutionary Slavonic-Bulgarian History. The monastery was dominated by Bulgarians until the late 19th century.
  However, in 1913, Serbian presence on Athos was quite big and the Athonite protos was the Serbian representative of Hilandar.
caption: A view of the Hilandar Monastery in 2006, after the Great Fire, and during first stages of the reconstruction process.
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