Original scientific paper
Janjevo and its medieval architectural sculpture
Vinicije B. Lupis
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Regional Centre Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Elvis Shala
; Archaeological Institute of Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo
Abstract
This paper examines the Romanesque stone sculpture of the Saxon cultural sphere incorporated into the present-day parish Church of St. Nicholas in Janjevo, Kosovo. The Church of St. Nicholas owes its current appearance, which at first glance appears as a stylistically undefined sacred structure, to the most recent restoration campaign carried out in the 1980s, as well as to an earlier reconstruction in the 19th century, when the original single-nave church with three apses was transfor
med into a three-nave basilica. The Roman Catholic parish in Janjevo is first mentioned indirectly in historical sources in 1303, i.e. in a letter from Pope Benedict XI to Archbishop Marin of Bar. In this letter, the Pope authorized the archbishop to appoint parish administrators for the churches of Brskovo, Rudnik, Rogozna, Trepča and Gračanica. Nearly half a century later, in 1346, Janjevo is explicitly mentioned among the churches of the Diocese of Kotor in a letter from Pope Clement VI to the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan. Together with the Romanesque Saxon Church of St. Mary in Podgrađe below Novo Brdo, the Church of St. Nicholas in Janjevo with that attribution complements the catalogue of Saxon churches in Kosovo as the only preserved three-nave Saxon church that has remained under roof and in continuous liturgical use to the present day. Finally, it may be concluded that Kosovo is indeed part of a broader European subculture, one that spread through migratory movements, particularly those associated with “12th-century Renaissance” from the Lower German region (Frisia, Flanders, Lower Saxony, etc.) into central and eastern Europe. This fact was recognized nearly fifty years ago by the Croatian art historian Vladimir P. Goss, who identified the Church of St. Mary in Podgrađe below Novo Brdo as a representative example of Saxon rustic Romanesque architecture. Regrettably, his
important observation remained largely neglected for decades—not only by Serbian and Albanian scholars, but also by Croatian art historians. A marble fragment from Janjevo, discovered in 1995, has recently been published. The fragment is most likely part of the lintel from a Romanesque church portal, which was found in the courtyard of the mosque in Janjevo, specifically in the Čaršija area. The Romanesque lintel from Janjevo stands as a silent yet powerful testament to the existence of another sacred monument, most likely constructed at the turn of the 12th to the 13th century, which should be associated with Dalmatian sto
ne-carving workshops, unlike the more architecturally complex Romanesque Church of St. Nicholas, which belongs to the central European Saxon cultural sphere and has preserved the majority of its original Romanesque sculpture as well as its structural authenticity.
Keywords
Janjevo; St. Nicholas; Saxon Romanesque; Church of St. Mary in Podgrađe below Novo Brdo; Kosovo
Hrčak ID:
353298
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2025.
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