Stara Pavlica Monastery

Stara Pavlica Monastery is located on a rocky hill on the right bank of the Ibar River, near Nova Pavlica Monastery. Past of this monument is known a little. It is not determined when it was created or who was the benefactor. There are assumptions that it was built at the end of ninth or the beginning of the tenth century as indicated by the fact that it is dedicated to the Holy Apostle Paul.

In the historical sources it is mentioned for the first time in the nineteenth century in one gift charter of Stefan Prvovenčani. Pavlica was male monastery. According to architectural and spatial and constructive concept, Stara Pavlica is a unique temple in Serbia. There are no surviving objects that might be a role model and on which basis the time of occurrence could be determined. Today only a part of the original and rather complex structure is preserved. The church was once decorated with frescoes as a whole, and now only fragments of two layers of frescoes are preserved. There are visible parts of the evangelists, standing figures of saints, the remains of the Crucifixion on the north wall, as well as parts of not made by hands character of Christ. Painted on a blue background with red borders, younger frescoes date from the mid-thirteenth century.