PIVA MONASTERY (MANASTIR PIVA)

50 km from Nikšić, before the town of Plužine, this monastery was once located near the source of the river. Isolated, it was dismantled stone by stone before being relocated a few kilometers up (construction of a hydroelectric plant). This "move" took more than ten years (end in 1982). The ensemble consists of a church, a house for the monks, a bread oven and a surrounding wall.

The church dedicated to the Dormition is the most important Orthodox building built in the country under the Ottomans. Most of the frescoes that adorn its walls were done in the early 17th century by unknown Greek artists. Among them is a faceless icon from the 18th century, destroyed by the Turks and preserved as a testimony to iconoclasm (a pre-Turkish doctrine that prohibited the representation of images of Christ and the saints).

The paintings of the iconostasis, made by Kyr Kozma in 1638, is considered the best painter of the seventeenth century. The frescoes in the narthex are the work of Strahinja, a priest from Budimlje (Berane) and a prolific painter who worked for four decades in the country.

The two icons on either side of the choir are the oldest, dating from 1573-1574, and were made at the very beginning of the church's construction. These two icons on the sides of the choir were made by Longin, a monk from Peć, Kosovo.