CHURCH OF CHRIST-PANTOCRATOR

A Romanesque church with rare Gothic ornaments surmounted by a Byzantine dome: this white vessel with pure lines set below a green slope is of a disturbing beauty. It is the highest Serbian Orthodox church of the Middle Ages: the building is 24 m wide and 36 m long, while the dome reaches a height of 29 m. If the architect is clearly identified thanks to an inscription, the thousand or so frescoes in the Serbo-Byzantine style that adorn the walls are the work of unknown artists, probably from the great "school of the court of King Milutin" (1282-1321). Completed in 1350 during the reign of Stefan Dušan, this masterpiece will forever be associated with its founder, Stefan Uroš III Dečanski ("Stephen Ouroš III of Dečani"). It was he who decided to start the work in 1327. It was he who dedicated it to Christ "Almighty"(pantocrator in Greek). It was also he who imagined it as an ideal, an unparalleled meeting of the arts of East and West. For nearly seven centuries, almost nothing has changed.

ArchitectureThe

building corresponds to the classical architecture of Byzantine churches with its inscribed cross plan, that is to say, without a transept: a naos ("temple") surmounted by a dome that ends in the east with an apse and is preceded on the west by a narthex ("vestibule"). And yet: this so orthodox plan is the work of a Catholic monk.

Vitus of Kotor.

It was this Franciscan from Montenegro who was chosen as the architect of the church by King Stefan Uroš III in 1327. This abbot is considered one of the greatest builders of the Balkans in the 14th century. However, he is not known to have built anything other than the church in Dečani. But it is likely that this masterpiece was not his first attempt. Nevertheless, almost nothing is known about him, except that he ran an abbey and a monastery in Kotor, Montenegro. While it may seem surprising that a Catholic would design the plans for an Orthodox church, it should be remembered that Kotor belonged to the Serbian kings for two centuries (1187-1389). They considered the Adriatic port as their jewel and granted it a large autonomy, both religious, political and commercial. By importing the know-how of the Venetian and Tuscan masters, the Catholic monks made Kotor in the 14th century the second capital of the Balkan architecture after Constantinople. In fact, it was with a team of thirty masters and masons from Kotor that Abbot Vitus settled in Dečani for eight years in 1327.

Plan.

The church consists of three parts. 1) The narthex: this very high "vestibule" (20 m) includes three vessels of 11 m length and 14.5 m width. 2) The naos: even more voluminous, it extends over 13 m length and 24 m width with five vessels, two of which are side chapels each with an apse. The naos ends with the dome mounted on a drum, which reaches a height of 29 m. 3) The sanctuary: made up of three parallel spaces each ending in an apse, it reaches the same dimensions as the narthex at the level of the apse of the altar.

Proportions.

Vitus of Kotor calculated the whole with the Greek foot as the main unit of measurement, which was then locally equivalent to 29 cm. The height of the dome was used as a reference, since it reached the round figure of 100 feet, or 29 m. From this, the most harmonious dimensions were determined, with a maximum of 124 feet (35.95 m) for the length and 83 feet (24.07 m) for the width.

Styles.

Generally speaking, the building is similar to the Croatian Catholic churches of Romanesque style built in Dalmatia in the 13th century, such as the church of St. Dominic in Trogir or the cathedral of St. Anastasia in Zadar. It also incorporates Gothic elements, including, inside, ribbed vaults. However, its drum-mounted dome and the side chapels of the nave clearly belong to the Byzantine style. With this mixture of genres, the Church of Christ the Pantocrator can be considered the culmination of the Serbian architectural school of the Raška (11th-13th centuries). It thus appears to be a more massive and at the same time more refined replica of the church of the monastery of Gradac (Serbia), built around 1275 by Hélène d'Anjou, the mother of Stefan Dečanski.

ExteriorThe

church looks massive, like a huge block of white marble cut to the cord. But the closer you get, the more you perceive the nuances, the details of a sober decoration where, here and there, bas-reliefs with creatures straight out of the bestiary of the medieval West explode.

Walls.

They are made of alternating rows of marble stones of two different colors. The result, splendid, evokes the facade of the Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi (Italy), completed in 1265. In fact, they are not really "marbles" but stones, however quite expensive. The lighter rows are composed of blocks of alabaster, a pale yellow limestone called "marble-onyx" that comes from Banjica, 35 km to the northeast, near Peja/Peć. The darker rows are obtained by using breccia, a pink oxidized conglomerate rock known as "breccia marble". The latter was extracted in Bistrica, 140 km northeast, in the northern tip of Kosovo, and was also used in the 17th century for the interior decoration of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. In addition, the pale yellow "marble-onyx" was also chosen for the realization of the decoration (doors, windows and sculptures). However, this stone has proven to be fragile and shows many signs of wear and cracks.

Portals.

The church has three doors in the late Romanesque style, all pierced in the narthex and decorated with sculpted motifs. The entrance is through the southern portal, the simplest, decorated with a cross on the tympanum and framed by two griffins. The portal of the façade is the most imposing and the most decorated. On its tympanum, in the form of a semicircular arch, is Christ Pantocrator sitting on a throne, surrounded by two lions and two angels. The door is framed on each side by four pillars and colonnettes, two of which bear the statue of a damaged lion. Above the tympanum, the exterior archivolt is decorated with vine leaves bearing centaurs, knights, dragons and a wolf devouring a lamb, framing, at the top, a lion carrying bunches of grapes in its open mouth. Finally, the north portal is framed by two lions and its tympanum bears a bas-relief representing the baptism of Christ. Below, the lintel bears the inscription dedicated to the architect and the two kings who commissioned it: "Fra Vito, a friar minor, a protégé of Kotor, the city of kings, built the Church of the Pantocrator for King Stefan Uroš III and his son, the luminous and transcendent King Stefan. In the eighth year, the church was completed in the summer of 1335. "

Windows and sculptures.

The church has about twenty windows. Almost all of them are in the Romanesque style (round arch), but some have a slight ogive shape that announces the Gothic style, especially at the level of the cupola. Their arches also vary greatly. Two Romanesque windows with triple arches supported by four columns are the most ornate. They are located at both ends of the church: one above the west portal, the other in the apse of the altar. The first one has a tympanum with a bas-relief of Saint George slaying the dragon and the capitals of its two central columns each bear a lion statuette. It was framed by four statues fixed to the wall, including two squatting human figures and two griffins, but one of the griffins has disappeared. The triple-arched window in the apse is also framed by four statues, of which only one lion is well preserved. The central columns are topped by two small griffins. The rest of the decoration is composed of complex motifs where vegetal elements (flowers, vine leaves and acanthus), dragons, a snake, various monsters, human figures or, on the tympanum, a basilisk, an animal from Greco-Roman mythology represented here with the body of a rooster and the tail of a snake. Most of the double-arched windows are also decorated (birds, dragons, basilisk, snakes, lamb, eagle, human faces, etc.). The most interesting one is on the right side of the narthex façade: its tympanum is decorated with a bas-relief representing an enigmatic embracing couple.

NarthexIt

is through this "vestibule" that one enters, via the north portal, the most decorated church of the Middle Ages (4,000^m2 of frescoes). Slightly lower than the naos it precedes, the narthex is nonetheless high, spacious and bright. Naturally illuminated by eight Romanesque windows, the space is composed of three vessels (in length) and three bays (in width) which are delimited by six white marble columns more than 6 m high. The capitals of the columns are sculpted with human figures and griffins. They support a series of vaults that reach a height of 20 m at the level of the three domes of the central vessel. All the walls and ceilings are decorated with frescoes made between 1346 and 1347. These are on the whole well preserved, except on certain parts of the walls of the side vessels. These paintings are made up of four major programs (Orthodox calendar, cycle of St. George, cycle of ecumenical councils, Nemanjić dynasty) that converge on the grandiose portal overlooking the naos.

Chapel of St. George.

On the left as you enter, at the level of the sarcophagus, this chapel is not materialized, but the entire northeast corner is dedicated to St. George of Lydda, megalomartyr and military saint who died in 303. It is an ex-voto of King Stefan Dečanski, which was made after his death. It is indeed to St. George that the ruler addressed his prayers before the great victory of Velbajd against the Bulgarians in 1330. On the eastern wall, a large cycle describes the deeds (vault), the martyrdom and miracles of St. George. We see him knocking down pagan idols or with the dragon, here tamed and held in check by the princess who has just been saved. After a series of tortures, the saint is presented to the emperor Diocletian, then beheaded. The lower part is occupied by the Mother of God Paraklesis ("mediatrix" in Greek) and by the dormition of Christ surrounded by a magnificent cherub and the Fathers of the Church St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil. On the north wall is the portrait of the Serbian nobleman Đorđe (George) Ostouša Pećpal, who financed the frescoes in this chapel: he is presented by St. George (standing and partly effaced) to the majestic Christ seated on a golden throne. As for the sarcophagus, it contained the bones of twenty-four higoumen (abbots) of the monastery. The floor of the northern part of the narthex is composed of slabs under which lie other monks and higomen.

Calendar of Orthodox feasts. On the upper parts of the walls, a huge program presents the menologion: the 365 days of the year illustrated with saints. According to the Byzantine tradition, the calendar begins on September^1. This day is materialized in the vault of the eastern wall, on the left, above the portal and Christ Pantocrator with the portrait of St. Simeon the Stylite (4th century) perched on a column (his epithet comes from stylos

, which means "column" in Greek).

Ecumenical Councils.

The three domes of the central nave of the narthex are decorated with twelve frescoes depicting the first six ecumenical councils: Nicaea I (325) and Constantinople I (381) on the eastern dome (near the portal); Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) on the central dome; Constantinople II (553) and Constantinople III (680-681) on the western dome. Half of the scenes show the Byzantine emperors presiding over the assemblies. The others depict the debates between the "good" bishops (who wear a halo) and the "bad" Nestorian, Monophysite, etc. bishops.

Tree of the Nemanjić.

Painted to the right of the portal, in front of the baptismal font (a 16th-century stone basin), this is one of Dečani's major frescos. This depiction of the genealogy of the most illustrious Serbian dynasty (1166-1371) is complete, as the line died out twenty-four years after the work was executed. Below, in the center, the founder, Stefan Nemanja, appears with his arms open as Symeon the Myroblite (the name under which he was canonized). He is surrounded by his sons St. Sava (in prelate's habit, founder of the Serbian Church) and Stefan I, his successor. This part of the fresco has suffered the outrages of profaners (the eyes have disappeared) and worshippers (the graffiti of monks, including one dated 1782). The tree thus continues with the most important sovereigns represented in large. The medallions are reserved for cousins, daughters, wives and "bad" kings. The last row shows Stefan Dušan (1331-1355) surrounded by his father Stefan Dečanski (right), who commissioned the church, and by his then 10-year-old son, the future and last of the Nemanjić, Stefan Uroš V.

Other portraits of the Nemanjić family.

The emperor Stefan Dušan, who commissioned the frescoes, is depicted in a large family portrait on the west wall. He is surrounded by his wife, Jelena of Bulgaria, and their son, the future king Stefan Uroš V. All three figures are improperly depicted with a halo: none of them will be canonized by the Serbian Church. Dušan also appears with his father, Stefan Dečanski, the sponsor of the church, above the inscription on the lintel of the main door.

Portal.

The gateway to the naos is lavishly decorated. It is framed by two stone columns, one bearing a griffin, the other a lion. They rest each on a weeping lion holding a Christian martyr between its paws. The tympanum is decorated with a huge portrait of Christ Pantocrator on a blue background. Not just any blue: lapis lazuli stone powder from Afghanistan, the most precious pigment of the Middle Ages, whose price exceeded that of gold. Jesus joins his middle finger and index finger to signify his dual nature (human and divine). Below, the two founders of the monastery, Stefan Dečanski (right) and his son Stefan Dušan (left) reach out their hands to receive from a cherub (center) two manuscripts bearing Christ's blessing.

NaosThe

central part of the church impresses by its size and its abundance of frescoes. Designed as a mausoleum for King Stefan Dečanski, it consists of five vessels (length) and two bays (width). The southern and northern vessels each have an apse. They form two parecclesions, side chapels typical of Byzantine architecture of the 10th-12th centuries, here dedicated to St. Nicholas (south) and St. Demetrios (north). The ensemble is dominated by the great dome that rises above the central vessel. The frescoes, on the whole well preserved, were painted between 1338 and 1347. Apart from the paintings in the two chapels and the dome, detailed below, the rest of the naos contains a series of portraits of saints and, above all, six cycles of frescoes. The naos also houses the two sarcophagi of Stefan Dečanski and that of his sister.

Scenes from the Apocalypse. The pillar on the left as you enter, towards the first two sarcophagi, was painted with edifying scenes. They belong to the cycle of the Parousia (see below). Three of them are rare, if not unique in Christian art, and illustrate the creative talent of the painters who used a wide variety of sources for their documentation. First, there is this depiction of Christ holding a sword. This unusual portrait refers to the "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Gospel according to Matthew), a parable in which Christ announces that he will return to purify humanity of its sins. Then, to the right of the "Weighing of Souls", there is the "Accuser and the Harlot", two figures around which a snake is wrapped. This scene combines three themes from the Apocalypse of St. John: the serpent (symbol of evil), the Devil (a word from the Greek diavallo

, meaning "accuser") and the Great Whore (the embodiment of the Roman Empire, which repressed the first Christians). Below, the surprising image of nine men attacked by white worms is based on the apocryphal text of the Apocalypse of Peter, which, in its description of Hell, cites sinners with "worm-eaten entrails that do not rest".

Dormition of the Mother of God. This large fresco is located above the entrance door and the lintel bearing the inscription of the founders of the church. It is the final and most grandiose scene of a cycle dedicated to the life of the Mother of God that runs across an entire section of the western area of the nave. The concept of the Dormition of the Mother of God corresponds to that of the Assumption among Catholics, but with a broader meaning: the Orthodox evoke as much the physical death of Mary as her ascent to heaven. Thus, the fresco presents the carnal envelope of the Mother of God plunged into a peaceful and eternal sleep (dormitio

in Latin), while her soul appears in the form of a newborn baby held by Christ, himself surrounded by the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Saint John bends over his body as if to hear his last words. Around him are the other apostles, Martha and her sister Mary, accompanied by virgins who will come to pray at the tomb in the following days, and finally, two figures in episcopal robes, James the Just (first bishop of Jerusalem) and Dionysius the Areopagite (first bishop of Athens and main witness to the death of Mary).

Cycle of the Parousia. Dedicated to the second coming of Christ on Earth and the Last Judgment, this cycle of "Waiting" (parousia

in Greek) shares the same area, west of the naos, as that of the life of the Mother of God. It ends above the dormition of the Mother of God. This finale is composed of five scenes. 1) Christ Pantocrator: in the dome, the "Almighty" sits on the heavenly throne. This image of the implacable judge is mitigated by the fact that the (adult) Christ has no beard, a rarity. 2) Hetimasia: This "empty throne" symbolizes the expectation of Christ's return. 3) Adam and Eve driven out of Eden: placed at the arch of the vault, they represent the men waiting for God to bring them back to Paradise. 4) Exaltation of the True Cross: this representation, here very graphic with large white halos and myriads of angels, normally belongs to the cycle of great feasts. 5) Last Judgment: Christ Pantocartor with a severe look is sitting on a golden throne. The Bible he is holding is opened to the page of the announcement of the parousia in the Gospel according to Matthew: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take possession of the kingdom.

The most complete example in the Byzantine world, this representation of the traditional genealogy of Christ spans the entire height of the wall, immediately to the right of the entrance. The tree establishes a relationship between Jesse, the father of David, the king of Israel (Old Testament), and Joseph, the father of Christ (New Testament). Starting from the bottom, the ascendancy develops along acanthus leaves bearing prophets, saints and biblical scenes. On either side, one can recognize, on the left, the prophet Elijah riding on his flying chariot pulled by white horses, the fountain of youth irrigating Eden, the collapse of the city of Sodom, or, on the right, the false prophet Balaam on his donkey stopped by an armed angel. The most astonishing part is at the bottom left. Here appear the philosophers Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and Plutarch, the physician Claudius Galen and a haloed sibyl. The presence of these pagan figures in a Christian work may be surprising. It is a typically Byzantine tradition. For their quest for Wisdom and the Logos (the "reason"), the thinkers of antiquity are considered to be the heralds of Christ, almost in the same way as the prophets. As for the sibyl, prophetess, she evokes the image of the Mother of God.

Sarcophagi.

Opposite the tree of Jesse and next to the chapel of Saint Nicholas are two marble sarcophagi. The larger one is that of King Stefan Dečanski (1276-1331), the founder of the monastery. The other, smaller but of the same model, is that of his sister Ana-Neda (c. 1297-1346). Both are empty. At the time of the canonization of the two deceased (1343 and 1346), their relics were placed in a sarcophagus and reliquary near the main iconostasis where they remain today. During his lifetime, Stefan Dečanski had wanted to make the church his mausoleum. Ana-Neda was briefly tsarina of Bulgaria (1323-1324) and had three children before becoming a nun under the name Jelena (Helen). All of them were the object of widespread popular fervor immediately after their deaths, and the miracles attributed to their relics contributed to making Dečani a great place of pilgrimage.

Cycle of the Old Testament.

Located between the Tree of Jesse and the Chapel of St. Nicholas, this ensemble illustrates the visions and adventures of the prophet Daniel. The best preserved and most striking part is above the arches: the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar has the three young Hebrews (Ananias, Azariah and Mishael) locked up in a superheated oven whose flames kill the king's soldiers. On the right, Daniel is plunged into the lion's den by the Achaemenid king Darius. Daniel and the three boys are saved thanks to the intervention of angels.

Cycle of the Acathist to the Mother of God. Placed between the sarcophagi and the chapel of St. Nicholas, this cycle is a pictorial setting of the hymn sung in honor of Mary that is heard "unseated" (akathistos in Greek) during the liturgy. According to a very strict code, each scene corresponds to one of the twenty-four stanzas of the hymn. Thus, on the dome, the white beam descending on Mary seated illustrates the fourth stanza ("The power of the Most High") which refers to the virginal conception of Christ and the Mother of God. Below, one can recognize three scenes dedicated to the Magi (eighth, ninth and tenth stanzas). The cycle continues in the Chapel of St. Nicholas.

Cycle of the Acts of the Apostles.

This program of frescoes, unusual in Byzantine art, occupies the upper parts of the first northern vessel, along the side of the Chapel of Saint Demetrios. It depicts thirty episodes from the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament). In the area of the first dome, we witness the failures of the apostles Peter and John following the death of Christ. After performing two miracles, they are accused of endangering the Jewish people by the high priest Caiaphas. They are beaten, imprisoned and then tried. The trial gives rise to a big fight that ends badly: Saint Stephen, the defender of the two apostles, is stoned and becomes the first Christian martyr. In the lower parts, a majestic portrait of St. Constantine and St. Helen, the first Byzantine emperor and his mother, who discovered the relic of the True Cross, is interspersed. The area of the second dome illustrates the last episodes of the life of Christ. Note the "healing of the man with dropsy" (his belly swollen with edema): by saving him on the Sabbath, Christ voluntarily breaks the Jewish law, thus affirming the beginning of a new era. Note also the "healing of the ten lepers" whose bodies are covered with unrealistic red dots (by convention, this is how leprosy is represented in Byzantine art) and, just next to them, the funny little black devils running around the "demoniacs of Gennesaret".

SanctuaryThis

is the most sacred part of the church. Symbolically closed by the iconostasis, the sanctuary is reserved for members of the clergy in charge of celebrating the liturgy (mass). It is therefore not possible to enter either the altar, or the prothesis (to the north), or the diakonikon (to the south). The latter, long used to store the monastery's treasure, was never decorated anyway. One can however admire the iconostasis.

Iconostasis and sarcophagus. The main iconostasis of the church is, of course, of modest dimensions, but it is one of the best preserved of the Byzantine period. Rarely has it preserved both its marble partition from 1335 and its four large icons from the 14th and 16th centuries. Initially, it had only two large icons. But when Stefan Dečanski was canonized by the Patriarchate of Peć in 1343, the space was reorganized: two new large icons were added, including the one of St. Nicholas (the king's patron saint), which remains on the left, the relics of the king (buried in the naos in 1331) were installed here, in the sarcophagus where they remain, on the right in front of the iconostasis (under the candlestick), and a portrait of the king was painted on the pillar next to the sarcophagus. A new intervention took place two centuries later when the great painter and monk Longin stayed in Dečani for twenty years. In 1577, in response to the craze for the king's relics, he painted the other three large icons that exist today: the one of the Mother of God Eleousa holding the Christ Child, the one of Christ Pantocrator, and the one of Stefan Dečanski (right). He also painted the fresco of St. Nicholas, on the pillar directly above the sarcophagus. Finally, the iconostasis underwent a last change in 1594. In that year, Master Andreja painted the royal doors and, above the lintel, the large cross and the small icons of the Deis (Christ, Mary and St. John the Baptist) and the twelve apostles.

The apse. It is dominated by the fresco of the Orante: it is the traditional representation of the Mother of God "praying" (orans in Latin), standing with her hands raised and stretched, palms open towards the outside. Symbolizing the arrival of Christ, she is surrounded by the archangels Michael (left) and Gabriel, who carry a standard stamped three times with the Greek word ΑΓΙΟC/Agios ("holy"), a reference to the trisagion, a prayer that consists of repeating over and over again "holy God, holy strong, holy immortal." Each archangel also holds a sphere that represents the creation of light (Michael) and earth (Gabriel) according to Genesis.