“The floor of the church in Prizren, the church of Decani, the narthex of Pec, the gold of Banjska and the scriptures of Resava are not to be found anywhere.” The Karlovac Genealogy, 1418-1427
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Cultural heritage of Serbia includes but is not limited to movable and immovable cultural property, including historic and cultural monuments, sites and architecture, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites and artifacts; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; traditional cultural property; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives and the buildings that house them such as museums, libraries, archives, or other depositories. The history of peoples on the Serbian soil has been turbulent from the times immemorial and has left countless traces, primordial words, wise sayings, customs, beliefs, traditions, legends, myths, poetry, vernacular architecture and landmarks that shaped it. Lepenski Vir in Djerdap Gorge on the Danube River had permanent settlements as early as the 6th millennium BC. Neolithic archaeological sites have been known as the cultures of Starčevo and Vinča. In his book “The mysteries of the Danube Civilization” Harald Haarmann proves that the Balkans was inhabited by the civilization that developed the first written language. Haarmann calls this culture “Old European”. Vinča is the first civilization in World located in Serbia with the Danube civilization script being the oldest writing in the world ever. And the town of Vinča itself was just one of several metropolises, with others at Divostin, Potporanj, Selevac, Pločnik and Predionica…
The Cultural Treasure of Serbia – Tourist Organization of Serbia
There is unbroken continuity of the ancient civilizations here: Serbs, Sarmatians, Ants, Iazyges, Roxolans, Illiryans, Tracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines… In Gomolava archaeological site on the bank of the Sava River /Srem county in Vojvodina/, there is evidence of the continuity of cultures, from about 5000 years BC till the 16th century. Most important are antiquities from the town of Sirmium, nowadays Sremska Mitrovica. Influences in contact of the cultures of the East and the West are vivid in remains of the Medieval structures, while there are rare examples of the Medieval applied and fine arts and precious handwritten and printed books preserved in the Serbian Orthodox monasteries.
The word fresco is loan word from the Italian language (buon fresco) which describes the technique used for performing depiction in wet morar without any connective appliance. It is used constantly with small changes approximately from 1500 BC until the 18th century. It is interesting that this term was not registered in Medieval Serbia, but there were other terms used in the meaning such as writing on the rock, writing on the columns, interior writing, decoration writing…… The fresco of „Ascension of the Holy Virgin” in the Sopocani Monastery is considered by the scholars as one of the most beautiful frescoes in Europe from the 13th century.
….”Likewise the fusion of the ancient and the Slavic composing elements, similar to the Roman and the German constituents in the development and integration of West Europe, the Serbs possessed the similar cultural and intellectual features in development of their common consciousness by which they have preserved their community and achieved the common identity and longevity”. See more The Serbs Sima M. Ćirković
And, of course the Christian Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija
