MOTHER-OF-GOD-OF-JAVOR CHURCH

This Serbian Orthodox church (Цркве Свете Богородице Јаворске/Crkva Svete Bogorodice Javorske, Kisha e Shndërrimit) is located in the village of Bostane/Bostani with a population of about 400 (45% Albanians, 40% Serbs and 15% Roma). It was built in the middle of the 19th century and is very simple, looking like a farmhouse. Surrounded by a recent (2014) parish centre and an old cemetery with wooden and stone graves, this rectangular building houses only an iconostasis that dates from the last renovation in 1987. But the church is one of the witnesses - indirectly - of the intense mining and commercial activity that reigned around the fortress of Novo Brdo in the late Middle Ages. As for the name of the building, it varies depending on who is being addressed. The church is dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, the equivalent of the Assumption for Catholics. It bears the epithet of Javor (literally "maple" in Serbo-Croatian) in memory of the Serbian-Turkish war of 1876-1878, known as the "Javor wars" (Javorski rat) by the Serbs. This conflict resulted in the defeat of the Ottomans, but also in an exodus of Albanians from Serbia to Kosovo.

Catholic remains. The local Albanians call the building "Church of the Transfiguration" (kisha e Shndërrimit). This is a more or less deliberate confusion with an old 17th century church located nearby. Good to know if you need to ask for directions. The present church is also the heir of three buildings dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. It was erected on the site of a Serbian Orthodox church, itself already dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. However, much of the stone used in its construction came from the two Catholic churches whose foundations can be seen nearby. Slightly to the south are the remains of the Jovča church. Above the seat of the municipality of Novo Brdo/Novobërda, 300 m north towards the fortress, are the ruins of the so-called Saxon church (Saška). Both were built for the needs of the Moravian and Dalmatian workers and merchants of the "Novo Brdo mining colony". Thus, at the end of the Middle Ages, the village was the main living place of the miners, a kind of large multi-ethnic and multi-cultural coron. For this reason, Bostane/Bostani was chosen as the "capital" of the municipality.