Fragments of holy warrior cycles in the Parekklesia of the Mileševa Monastery

Abstract

King Vladislav’s foundation, the Mileševa Monastery with its Church of the Ascension, was built in the thirteenth century near Prijepolje. The architecture and wall paintings of the church have already been exhaustively researched. However, the fragments of frescoes in the katholikon’s side parekklesia have remained unexplored, and the remnants of the scenes unidentified. Both lateral structures are dedicated to warrior saints - St. George and St. Demetrios. The imagery of these parekklesia included some images from the vitae of these megalomartyrs. The paper describes and identifies their remnants, comparing them with similar representations in the programs of other foundations.

Keywords

• mileševa
• parekklesia
• st. demetrios
• st. george
• warrior saints
• vitae
• hagiographical cycles