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Manastir Visoki Dečani je srpski srednjovekovni pravoslavni manastir — zadužbina kralja Stefana Dečanskog i cara Stefana Dušana. Inicijativa za gradnju ovog manastira pripadala je Svetom Savi. Kralj Stefan Dečanski u njegovoj hrisovulji je jasno kazao da je mesto za dizanje hrama Božijeg u Dečanima izabrao Sveti Sava, ali ga je smrt prestigla, a bilo je suđeno kralju Urošu III da podigne manastir na tom mestu. Gradnja je trajala između 1326. i 1334. godine, freske su završene oko 1348. godine.

Manastir je posvećen Vaznesenju Gospodnjem — Spasovdanu (freska praznika se prikazuje i u kupoli pod nazivom Hrist Svedržitelj, svevladar — na grč. Pantokrator). Glavni neimar bio je majstor Vito Kotoranin. Manastirska crkva predstavlja petobrodnu građevinu i pripada raškom stilu. U samom planu Dečana stara iskustva raškog graditeljstva razvijena su i dovedena do sasvim novog izraza, uz primenu najsloženijih rešenja savremene romanogotičke arhitekture srpskog Pomorja postavljanjem nadvišene kupole na uzdignuto kubično postolje. Manastir se nalazi u jednoj udolini pored rečice Dečanska Bistrica jugozapadno od Peći, ispod planinskog masiva Prokletije. Mošti Svetog kralja Stefana Dečanskog i Svete Jelene Dečanske počivaju u Manastiru. Kada su Turci hteli Dečane da pretvore u džamiju 1692. godine dogodilo se čudo kojim su u tome sprečeni i koje se pripisuje njoj. Manastir pripada Eparhiji raško-prizrenskojSrpske pravoslavne crkve i predstavlja nepokretno kulturno dobro kao spomenik kulture od izuzetnog značaja.

The Dečani Monastery is located 17 km south of Peć, at the foothills of the Prokletije Mountains. Between 1327 and 1335, Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski founded the monastery as his endowment and mausoleum. After his death, his son, Dušan the Mighty, continued the construction.

Dečani represents the largest church building of medieval Serbia and is also known as Visoki Dečani.

They were constructed following the model of the Church of the Virgin in Studenica, with diverse and rich plastic decorations on portals, windows, and consoles. The foundation of the Church of Christ Pantocrator consists of three parts: a tripartite altar space, a five-nave naos, and a three-nave narthex. A dome rises above the central nave of the naos, octagonal on the outside and circular on the inside. The dome is 28 meters high. Builder fra Vita from Kotor covered the structure of the Orthodox temple with Romanesque facade treatments, executed in horizontal rows of light yellow and purple-red marble.

The frescoes of Dečani are almost entirely preserved and count over 1,000 individual figures and scenes from Christian history, categorized into more than 20 cycles. Particularly interesting is the series of portraits of the Nemanjić dynasty members. The frescoes were created between 1335 and 1350 by numerous painters from various parts of Dušan’s empire, with artists from coastal regions dominating, who decorated both Orthodox and Catholic churches with frescoes. Dečani is one of the few Serbian medieval churches where the original stone iconostasis and a large number of icons from the 14th century are completely preserved.

The Dečani Treasury, along with the one at Hilandar, is the richest monastery treasury in the Serbian lands, with about 60 icons from the 14th to 17th centuries, ancient manuscripts, a large number of books, and church items of invaluable artistic and cultural-historical value, displayed in the monastery’s dining hall building, representing the main attraction of this monument complex.

The Visoki Dečani Monastery is a Serbian medieval Orthodox monastery, founded by King Stefan Dečanski and Emperor Stefan Dušan. The initiative for building this monastery belonged to Saint Sava. King Stefan Dečanski clearly stated in his chrysobull that Saint Sava chose the place for building the temple of God in Dečani, but his death preceded the realization of this plan, and it was destined for King Uroš III to build the monastery at that location. Construction lasted between 1326 and 1334, and the frescoes were completed around 1348.

The monastery is dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord — Ascension Day (the fresco of the holiday is also depicted in the dome under the name of Christ Almighty, Pantocrator in Greek). The main architect was the master Vito from Kotor. The monastery church represents a five-nave building and belongs to the Raška style. In the plan of Dečani, old experiences of Raška construction were developed and brought to a completely new expression, using the most complex solutions of contemporary Romanesque-Gothic architecture of the Serbian littoral by placing an elevated dome on a cubic pedestal. The monastery is located in a valley next to the Dečanska Bistrica river southwest of Peć, beneath the Prokletije mountain massif. The relics of Saint King Stefan Dečanski and Saint Helena Dečanska rest in the monastery. When the Turks wanted to convert Dečani into a mosque in 1692, a miracle prevented them, attributed to her. The monastery belongs to the Raško-Prizren Eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church and represents an immovable cultural property as a monument of culture of exceptional importance.

The founder of the Visoki Dečani Monastery is Saint Stefan Uroš III Dečanski, son of Saint King Milutin and father of Emperor Dušan. The Church celebrates him as a great martyr on November 11/24. As a ten-year-old boy, he was given as a hostage to the Tatar khan Nogai. In his youth, under false accusations of plotting against his father, he was blinded and imprisoned in the Christ Pantocrator Monastery in Constantinople. Prayerful, meek, and merciful, he gained favor with both the monastic and noble classes, even with the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II. After seven years, with mediation from Serbian and Greek bishops, reconciliation was achieved, and he was given control over the Budimlja region. In 1322, after the death of Saint King Milutin, he was crowned as Uroš III. Before the coronation, he removed the bandage from his eyes and proclaimed to all the miraculous healing granted to him by Saint Nicholas the Miracle-worker. Saint Nicholas the Miracle-worker is prominently featured in the Dečani frescoes as Stefan’s healer and advocate before God. One of the chapels in the Dečani church is dedicated to him. Moreover, Grigorije Camblak, the abbot of Dečani (1402-1409) and later Kiev bishop, says that the same benefactor Saint Nicholas built a church near the monastery. Stefan Uroš III inherited a vast state from his father, rich in silver and gold mines, with developed agriculture, animal husbandry, and trade, and he ruled it wisely and devoutly, with love for people and God. The pious king engaged in charitable works and the construction and decoration of God’s temples, both within his homeland and beyond its borders; in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, in Alexandria, Sinai, Thessaly, Constantinople, especially in the Holy Mountain of Athos, the famous Hilandar Monastery. The peak of Stefan’s benefaction was the construction of the Visoki Dečani Monastery, after which he would later be called Dečanski. Gratefully thanking God for all the blessings He had bestowed upon him, especially after the great victory over the Bulgarians in 1330 at Velbužd, King Stefan Uroš III issued the first foundation charter of the Dečani Monastery in the same year, with the consent of the assembly and the blessing of the Serbian archbishop, recording in it the land and other gifts to the monastery.

The death of Saint King Dečanski was sudden and martyr-like, and he did not live to see all the beauties of his endowment. In 1331, there was a rebellion of the nobility against the young King Dušan, who, with his knowledge, suddenly attacked the court in Nerodimlje. Saint Stefan was imprisoned in the Zvečan fortress, and after two months, on November 24, he was killed by Dušan’s men. The body of the martyred saint was transferred to the Dečani Monastery and solemnly buried in a previously prepared place, immediately after the completion of the church. Young King Dušan took over the care of completing his father’s endowment and furnishing the church, as well as fresco painting. In 1343, he himself wrote in a charter about the miraculous manifestation of grace on the relics of his father