REPUBLI^KI ZAVOD ZA ZA[TITU SPOMENIKA KULTURE BEOGRAD STUDIJE I MONOGRAFIJE 19 INSTITUTE FOR THE PROTECTION OF CULTURAL MONUMENTS OF SERBIA STUDIES AND MONOGRAPHS 19 Marko POPOVI] Igor BJELI] St Nicholas Church THE ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL OF THE TOWN OF NOVO BRDO Belgrade 2018 Marko POPOVI] Igor BJELI] Crkva Svetog Nikole KATEDRALA GRADA NOVOG BRDA Beograd 2018 IZDAVA^ Republi~ki zavod za za{titu spomenika kulture Beograd Beograd, Radoslava Gruji}a 11 www.heritage.gov.rs ZA IZDAVA^A Mirjana Andri} UREDNIK Ivana Prodanovi}-Rankovi} RECENZENTI prof. dr. Branislav Todi}, arh. Gordana Simi} LEKTOR I KOREKTOR dr Marina Spasojevi} PREVOD Verica Risti} CRTE@I Igor Bjeli} LIKOVNO I GRAFI^KO URE\EWE Danijela Paracki i D_SIGN, Beograd [TAMPA PUBLIKUM, Beograd TIRA@ 500 primeraka EDITOR Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia Belgrade, Radoslava Gruji}a 11 www.heritage.gov.rs EDITOR IN CHIEF Mirjana Andri} EDITOR Ivana Prodanovi}-Rankovi} REVIEWERS prof. dr. Branislav Todi}, arh. Gordana Simi} READER AND PROOF/READER dr Marina Spasojevi} TRANSLATOR Verica Risti} DRAWINGS Igor Bjeli} GRAPHIC DESIGN & PREPRESS Danijela Paracki & D_SIGN, Belgrade PRINTED BY PUBLIKUM, Belgrade NUMBER OF COPIES 500 ISBN 978-86-6299-031-0 [tampawe ove kwige omogu}ilo je Ministarstvo kulture i informisawa Republike Srbije This Publication is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia IN MEMORIAM prvim istra`iva~ima Novog Brda dr Mirjani ]orovi}-Qubinkovi} i Radivoju Qubinkovi}u Contents 8 | INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 10 | FOUNDING AND DEVELOPMENT OF NOVO BRDO IN THE 14TH AND THE 15TH CENTURY 36 | RESEARCH HISTORY 48 | SEPULCHRAL CHURCH WITH THE NECROPOLIS 60 | ST NICHOLAS CHURCH – OLDER, WEST SECTION OF THE CATHEDRAL 74 | Fragments of the stone plastic with inscriptions 76 | Stone plastic with relief decorations 84 | Structural assembly and the former appearance of the original Church of St Nicholas 92 | Finishing of the facades and the question of the position of the decorative plastic 98 | Portals 102 | Relief plastics of the archivolts, windows and rosettes 110 | Characteristics of the architecture and the dating of the older phase of the Church of St Nicholas 120 | ST NICHOLAS CHURCH – THE ADDED, EAST SECTION OF THE CATHEDRAL 136 | Remains of the wall paintings 142 | Structural assembly and the former appearance of the added east section of the cathedral 150 | Architectural characteristics of the added section of the cathedral 154 | BURIALS AT THE CATHEDRAL 178 | EXTENDING OF THE CATHEDRAL – THE MEANING, FUNCTION AND DATING 184 | MOSQUE – THE FORMER CATHEDRAL OF NOVO BRDO 188 | Conversion of the cathedral and the older phase of the mosque 198 | Reconstruction of the mosque – younger phase 208 | FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 229 | BIBLIOGRAPHY 237 | ATTACHMENT 1 Gordana Tomovi}, Inscriptions from the Church of St Nicholas – the Cathedral of Novo Brdo Sadr\aj 9 | UVODNA RAZMATRAWA 11 | NASTANAK I RAZVOJ NOVOG BRDA U 14. I 15. VEKU 37 | DOSADA[WA ISTRA@IVAWA 49 | GROBQANSKA CRKVA SA NEKROPOLOM 61 | CRKVA SVETOG NIKOLE – STARIJI, ZAPADNI DEO KATEDRALE 75 | Fragmenti kamene plastike sa natpisima 77 | Kamena plastika sa reqefnim ukrasom 87 | Konstruktivni sklop i nekada{wi izgled prvobitne crkve Svetog Nikole 93 | Obrada fasada i pitawe mesta dekorativne plastike 99 | Portali 103 | Reqefna plastika arhivolti, prozora i rozeta 113 | Odlike arhitekture i datovawe starije faze crkve Svetog Nikole 121 | CRKVA SVETOG NIKOLE – DOGRA\ENI, ISTO^NI DEO KATEDRALE 139 | Ostaci `ivopisa 143 | Konstruktivni sklop i nekada{wi izgled dogra|enog isto~nog dela katedrale 151 | Odlike arhitekture dogra|enog dela katedrale 155 | SAHRAWIVAWE U KATEDRALI 179 | DOGRADWA KATEDRALE – ZNA^EWE, FUNKCIJA I DATOVAWE 185 | XAMIJA – NEKADA[WA KATEDRALA NOVOG BRDA 189 | Konverzija katedrale i starija faza xamije 199 | Obnova xamije – mla|a faza 209 | ZAVR[NA RE^ 229 | BIBLIOGRAFIJA 237 | PRILOG Gordana Tomovi}, Natpisi iz saborne crkve Svetog Nikole – katedrale Novog Brda 8 Introductory considerations A MONG THE TOWNS of medieval Serbia, Novo Brdo holds an exceptional place. The development of urban settings in the interior of the Serbian lands, cor- roborated later by the examples of Belgrade and Smederevo, starts and is best viewed precisely in the example of this town. Novo Brdo constitutes a striking testimony and a symbol of the economic prosperity of medieval Serbia, its complex social structure and openness towards the European influences. The rich mines that pro- vided the finest silver, very much valued in the then world, ensured not only the prosperity of the town, but also brought in significant revenues to the ruler. During the turbulent times of the Ottoman conquests, it was precisely on the Novo Brdo silver that the survival of the state rested to a significant degree. The riches of Novo Brdo, that was well-known far and wide, made a powerful impression on its con- temporaries. For Constantine of Kostenets, biographer of Despot Stefan (Lazarevi}), Novo Brdo was “the town of silver and indeed of gold.”1 The same impression of the town was experienced a few decades later by Constantine of Ostrovica who called it “the mountain of silver and gold.”2 Admiration for the wealth of Novo Brdo was also expressed by the Byzantine chronicler Doukas, calling it “the mother of all towns,” while his contemporary Critobulus, also a Greek, particularly emphasized the riches of Novo Brdo consisting of silver and gold.3 The French traveller from Burgundy, Ber- trandon de la Broquiere, who passed through Serbia in 1433, also recorded a tes- timony saying “the despot has a town called Novo Brdo … (where) there is a joint mine of gold and silver and every year more than 200,000 ducats are mined, and if it had- n’t been for that I believe he would have already been exiled from his Serbia.”4 Disproportionally to the importance which Novo Brdo used to have in the past, the life of that medieval town, observed as a whole, has remained insufficiently known and only partially studied. The preserved original historic materials, which are almost solely limited to the documents from the coastal archives, in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) (present-day Croatia – TN) and Kotor (present-day Montenegro – TN), primarily shed the light on the activities of the residents of Novo Brdo, most often foreigners, origi- nating from these towns. There are significantly fewer data, and those are mostly indirect, about the local Serbian population that constituted the majority population of Novo Brdo. With an exception of the famous Zakon o rudnicima despota Stefana 1 @itije despota Stefana 1989, 98. (Law on the Mines of Despot Stefan – TN) which also contains a part of the town’s 5 2 Konstantin iz Ostrovice 1986, 121. statute of Novo Brdo, there are almost no preserved Serbian original materials on 3 Jire~ek, Radoni} 1978, 406. this town. Despite the fact that the available sources, notably inconsistent, do not pro- 4 B. de la Brokijer, 133. vide for the time being a possibility to see as a whole the development of Novo Brdo th th 5 Radoj~i} 1962, 51–57; Jovanovi} i dr. during the 14 and the 15 centuries, they still do provide a basic picture of the (S. ]irkovi}) 2004, 162–177. town that may only be supplemented by future explorations. 9 Uvodna razmatrawa M E\U GRADOVIMA sredwovekovne Srbije Novom Brdu pripada izuzetno mesto. Razvoj urbanih sredi{ta u unutra{wosti srpskih zemaqa, kasnije po- svedo~en primerima Beograda i Smedereva, zapo~iwe i najboqe se sagledava upravo na primeru ovog grada. Novo Brdo upe~atqivo je svedo~anstvo i simbol ekonomskog prosperiteta sredwovekovne Srbije, wene slo`ene dru{tvene struk- ture i otvorenosti prema evropskim uticajima. Bogati rudnici, iz kojih se dobijalo najfinije srebro, veoma ceweno u tada{wem svetu, obezbe|ivali su ne samo napredak grada ve} su donosili i zna~ajne prihode vladaru. U nemirnim vremenima turskih osvajawa na novobrdskom srebru je u dobroj meri po~ivao i opstanak dr`ave. Bogatstvo Novog Brda, koje je bilo nadaleko poznato, ostavqa- lo je sna`an utisak na savremenike. Za Konstantina Filozofa, biografa despo- ta Stefana, Novo Brdo je bilo „grad srebreni i u istinu zlatni“.1 Isti do`i- vqaj grada imao je i nekoliko decenija kasnije Konstantin iz Ostrovice, koji ga naziva „gora srebrena i zlatna“.2 Divqewe bogatstvu Novog Brda iskazuje i vizantijski hroni~ar Duka, nazivaju}i ga „majkom gradova“, a wegov savreme- nik Kritovul, tako|e Grk, posebno isti~e bogatstvo Novog Brda u srebru i zla- tu.3 Francuski putnik iz Burgundije, Bertrandon de la Brokijer (Bertrandon de la Broquiere), koji je kroz Srbiju pro{ao 1433. godine, tako|e je zabele`io kazivawe kako „despot ima jedan grad zvani Novo Brdo … (gde) postoji rudnik zlata i srebra zajedno i svake godine se iskopa vi{e od 200.000 dukata, a da nije toga verujem da bi ve} bio izgnan iz svoje Srbije“.4 Nesrazmerno zna~aju koje je Novo Brdo nekada imalo, `ivot tog sredwove- kovnog grada, posmatran u celini, ostao je nedovoqno poznat i samo delimi~no prou~en. Sa~uvana izvorna istorijska gra|a, koja je gotovo iskqu~ivo ograni- ~ena na dokumenta iz primorskih arhiva, Dubrovnika i Kotora, osvetqava na prvom mestu delovawe novobrdskih `iteqa, naj~e{}e stranaca, poreklom iz ovih gradova. O lokalnom srpskom stanovni{tvu, koje je ~inilo ve}inu gra|ana Novog Brda, raspola`e se sa znatno mawe podataka, i to uglavnom posrednih. Sa izuzetkom poznatog Zakona o rudnicima despota Stefana, u kome se nalazi i deo novobrdskog gradskog statuta,5 o ovom gradu gotovo da i nema sa~uvane srpske izvorne gra|e. Uprkos ~iwenici da raspolo`ivi izvori, izrazito ne- ujedna~eni, za sada ne pru`aju mogu}nost da se u celini sagleda razvoj Novog 1 @itije despota Stefana 1989, 98. Brda tokom 14.