You can hardly find a facility that is restored with so much success and maintained as the Monastery Zitomislici in our country, in a rich collection of cultural heritage. The old building is now shining, although it has been demolished several times in the history, it is considered as one of the most beautiful Orthodox monasteries in this region.
It is located on the hill, in the Neretva River valley, surrounded by vineyards, and primarily peace and quiet, and this monastery carries all that choreography of similar monuments in our country. The monks who live there are giving it the note of permanent maintenance and preservation that some of our other monuments are missing.
A decision on declaring the monastery as the national monument of BiH explained that Monastery Zitomislici was mentioned for the first time in Ottoman census records for Bosnian Sanjak in 1468/1469, and Herzegovinian Sanjak in 1477. These data show that the monastery Zitomislici is the old heritage of the family Hrabrena from before the Ottoman Empire in this region. Family Miloradovic-Hrabrena is the only one that left preserved monuments in Herzegovina from two historical periods: the Middle Ages and the Ottoman period.
The construction of the Church of St. Annunciation in Zitomislici was finished back in 1602 or 1603, and the written record of master Vukasin, who directed the construction, was preserved. The monastery was painted back in 1609.
There is a significant relationship between Zitomislici and the famous monastery Hilandar, since monks of this Herzegovinian monastery became Hilandar abbots in the 17th century. In 1858, the Spiritual School was founded in the monastery, first of its kind in BiH. The monastery was set on fire at the beginning of World War II, and all monks were killed. In the last war, the church was destroyed to the ground together with the dormitory part and other facilities were severely damaged as well. After the war, in the period after 2003, the church, the old dormitory, and other objects were reconstructed.
The original iconostasis disappeared even before the war, and it was painted again by four artists from Belgrade in 2014. Today the church is beautifully decorated. Monks are working on almost seven hectares of vineyards, for the production of wine, and they are planning to plant olive trees as well.
The main impression that you take from Zitomislici is the taste with which the object was restored and you cannot find anything to add or take off, it seems so natural, as it was more than 500 years ago.
(Source: R. D./Klix.ba)
