ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH IN SOPOTNICA

Founded in 1454 by the Bosnian noble family of the Kosača, this Serbian Orthodox church (Crkva Svetog Đorđa u Sopotnici/Црква Светог Ђорђа у Сопотници) is not of major architectural interest. But it occupies an important place in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serbian people. It has been extensively modified over the centuries, with the addition of the bell tower in 1894, for example. Burned during the 1992-1995 siege, the building was restored in 2002 and is now located in the territory of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, in the municipality of Ustiprača (Novo Goražde municipality), 400 m from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the municipality of Goražde. The church hosted the world's second Serbian-language printing shop in 1519, after the Makarijeva workshop in Montenegro. While Goražde was already under Ottoman rule since 1481, the printing house published three religious books in Old Slavic liturgy, including a psalter, in 1521, copies of which circulated throughout the Slavic world. The workshop was relocated to Romania in 1544. And it was not until the 19th century that a printing house was again established in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But the edition of the "Goražde Psalter" has remained as one of the best examples of the skills of the early Serbian printers. Only ten incomplete copies of this precious book are known today, of which four are in Serbia, two in Ukraine, two in Croatia, one in Russia and one in the Czech Republic.