Raška

Raška is one of the youngest small towns in this part of the country. It was established by the decree of Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjević in 1845, and is located 82 km southwards from Krajevo and 252 km away from Belgrade. It is located at the confluence of the river Raška and the Ibar, and was named after the river and the area in which it is located. Since the first day of its existence, Raška was planned as an urban environment and even today it is considered as the most urban small town in Serbia in that time. Apart from its brief “urban” history, the archaeological findings indicate that civilization had existed in this area much before the establishment of this place. In the vicinity of the small town, there are a lot of archaeological sites, insufficiently researched yet, such as Zajčaka and the village of Rvati. Besides, in the vicinity of Raška, there are numerous monasteries and churches dating back in the Early Middle Ages. Among them, particularly beautiful are the monastery of Gradac from the 13th century. The Church of the Mother of God of the monastery of Gradac was constructed as the sepulchral church of the queen and the great female testator Helen of Anjou, the wife of King Uroš the First. IThe monastery of Končul, 3 km away to the southeast from Raška, on the very bank of the Ibar river, is believed to have been established by some of the most reputed Serbs of that time, maybe even by Nemanja himself. Today, there is still the Church of St. Nicholas. The monastery of Stara Pavlica (Old Pavlica) is located in the village of Pavlica, 6 km northwards from Raška. It originates from the period before the Nemanjić Family Dynasty and was erected around the end of the 12th century. What has remained of the monastery is only a partly preserved church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, after which the monastery itself is named. In the immediate vicinity of the monastery of Stara Pavlica, there is also the monastery of Nova Pavlica (New Pavlica), erected by the Serbian great nobles Musić brothers as their legacy around the end of the 14th century. The monastery’s church is dedicated to the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God. In the monastery, Musić brothers’ mother took the veil, as well as did Prince Lazar’s sister by the name of Dragana, who eventually departed her life in the monastery as nun Teodosija. The town of Raška is a contemporary place now. The natural beauties of this region are perhaps best testified to by the fact that each square kilometer in Raška is covered by around 550 m of the water flow on average. The Ibar river, together with its tributaries (the Brenevica, the Jošanica, the Rudnička and the Radošička rivers), creates a dense hydrographical network here. The area is also rich in ores and springs of mineral waters. In the vicinity of the small town itself, there are the medicinal springs of Marina voda (Mara’s Water), the waterfall of Barska reka (Barska River), Smeteško Lake, as well as the slopes of Kopaonik, a mountain famous for its winter mountain center.