Whichever village one enters, enters a forest or a city, one encounters churches, monasteries, but unfortunately, most often their ruins.
All those who, over the centuries, kidnapped these parts by conquering them, tried to erase everything that is Serbian, in order to erase the traces of the spiritual, cultural and heritage of Serbian statehood from the area of Kosovo Pomoravlje.
ST
One of the shrines, whose ruins continue to captivate with light and holiness, is the monastery of St. Demetrius in the area of the village of Kmetovce, a few kilometers east of Gjilan.
In the hills above Kmetovac, not far from the forest, which goes east from the monastery, there are the remains of the church in which, according to tradition, Prince Lazar was baptized. The ruler who showed the Serbian people which way to go, leaving the Kosovo Covenant in his will, was born in Prilepac, which is only a few kilometers away from Kmetovac, and the popular belief that he was baptized in this church has a foundation.
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Oral legends say that the monastery was founded during the reign of Emperor Dušan in the middle of the 14th century. The monastery was attacked by the Turks after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, and was completely destroyed in the 18th century.
In the period between 1966 and 1968, conservation work was carried out on the remains of the church. Today, the monastery ruins are under the protection of the Republic of Serbia, as a cultural monument of exceptional importance.
ST
Few Serbs still gather around the foundations of the church
Residents of Kmetovac, as well as the surrounding villages, gather in large numbers around the walls of this temple every holiday.
– We came here as children, it is the same today. There were many more people then, many more Serbs.
There was an old big cherry tree here near the cemetery. She’s gone now. However, in 40, 50 years, everything has changed. Few Serbs in this area are trying to survive somehow. Life is hard, there is no work, young people are leaving. Rare are those who find a job here, they survive mainly on agriculture and pensions – says this pensioner, whose marriage took her from her homeland.
There is a very old Serbian cemetery around the church, and to the west of it, there used to be an oak, apparently hundreds of years old. The tree was probably broken by the wind. The roots and the broken tree stand one and a half meters above the ground, and the remains of the oak bark are stacked near it.
The immediate surroundings with the valley around the monastery are called Varvarica. The Church of St. Demetrius still shines with undiminished splendor, providing a beautiful view of freshly plowed fields, pastures and forests. Grass and moss sprout from its walls, and there are also last year’s dried field flowers. The remains of some decoration were placed on its walls.
ST
Although the ruined church still shines today, it exudes peace
The place of the baptism of the ruler who showed the Serbian people which way to go, deciding on the field of Kosovo for eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven, is in a place where, one gets the impression, there is such peace and calm that the wind does not blow.
Although the church does not have a roof or any protection, it is unusually clean. No fallen leaves in it. Everything shines. On the right side of the entrance, there are stands for lighting candles.
The remains of the candles clearly show that the shrine has not been forgotten and that, in addition to the locals, rare pilgrims come to it. The March sun lured lizards, unaccustomed to visitors, quickly
escapes from the hot stones.
Many churches in Kosovo are built of stone which, when heated in the sun, is somehow unusually pleasant to the touch.
So it is with the church of St. Demetrius, whose walls provide refuge and refuge to anyone who finds himself there. The light that bounces off of them somehow caresses.
ST
In the distance two pulins return the sheep that have separated from the flock. After he was killed in the Battle of Kosovo, Prince Lazar was buried in the church in Pristina, and two years later, his relics were transferred to his endowment, the Ravanica Monastery, where they are still located today.
The remnants of the glory of the powerful Serbian empire are clearly visible here
Where there is silence, people are closer to God, it is believed. There is no lack of silence in the hills above Kmetovac today. The proximity of the sky, the eternity of the Kingdom of Heaven through the living church and its shrines in Kosovo Pomoravlje, but also the transience of everything earthly, including the glory of the powerful medieval Serbian kingdom, are clearly visible from here.
It is already dusk, in the distance to the south, the sunset clearly reveals even the peaks of Sharplanina. The Church of St. Demetrius remains waiting for renewal, resisting time, calling on its people, where their cradle is.
Photo: ST
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