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| DOSSIERS | World Heritage Committee - Suzhou (China) June 28-July 7, 2004
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| The Dečani Monastery - at the foot of the Prokletije mountains, in the western part of the province of Kosovo and Metohija - was built in the mid 14th century for the Serbian King Stefan Dečanski. |
It is also his mausoleum. It represents the last important phase of Byzantine-Romanesque architecture in the region and is the largest of all medieval Balkan churches. It contains exceptional, well-preserved Byzantine paintings, which cover practically the entire interior of the church with over 1,000 individual depictions of saints. It also has numerous Romanesque sculptures. The original marble floor is preserved, as is the interior furniture, and the main 14th century iconostasis. The Dečani treasury is the richest in Serbia, with, notably, about 60 exceptional icons from the 14th to 17th centuries. The Monastery represents an exceptional synthesis of Byzantine and Western traditions.
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