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... Kalenic Monastery ... Rekovac - Levac
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... Kalenic Monastery Church ...
The Kalenic monastery is a foundation of protovestiar (high Byzantine title) Bogdan, his wife Milica, and his brother Peter. The church, dedicated to the Presentation of the Holy Virgin, was built and painted between 1407 and 1413. After repeated Turkish assaults it was abandoned in the late 17th century. The monastery was restored in 1766, but during the rebellion against the Turks, in which the Kalenic monks took part, 1788-1791, the monastery was burnt. The monks came back towards the end of the century. The new narthex was erected in 1806.
The Kalenic church was built in alternate courses of white marble blocks and bricks joined with thick layers of mortar. The facade is segmented vertically by pilasters and engaged colonnettes, and horizontally with two cordon cornices around the whole church. Two-light windows are in the zone between the two cornices, while the upper zone contains arches, twisted colonnettes and rosettes. Above, there are the arches of the dome's pedestal, rosettes, and checkering. Architecturally, the ground plan of the church has the form of a trefoil with an apse at the eastern end, and a narthex facing west. The central dome crowns the middle part of the nave, whereas the blind dome is above the narthex.
Particularly valuable are the carved decoration on the portals, windows and facade, typical of the so-called Morava school of Serbian art. The major molding patterns include two-wired cable, stylized lilies and palmettos, and also human and animal figures.
Kalenic, with its graceful architecture and very lovely mural paintings, ranks among the finest monuments not only of the Morava style, but of Serbian art in general.
Kalenic frescoes, delicate and harmonious in their colouring, are highly reminiscent of their contemporaries in Russian painting, especially the work of Andrei Rublev.
