Praskvica Monastery

Manastir Praskvica sits on the Čelobrdo slope above Sveti Stefan and is named for the praskva (peach tree) that local legend says marked the spring beside it. T…Manastir Praskvica sits on the Čelobrdo slope above Sveti Stefan and is named for the praskva (peach tree) that local legend says marked the spring beside it. Two churches stand on the property: the smaller Holy Trinity, whose foundation tradition reaches back to 1050 with a first documentary mention in 1307, and the larger Saint Nicholas, founded in 1413 by Lord of Zeta Balša III Balšić and his mother Jelena under the Raška architectural school, with Saint Nicholas chosen as the protector of seafarers and the Paštrovići.

In 1812 French forces under Marshal Marmont plundered and burned the complex as reprisal against the Russia-aligned Paštrovići and Prince-Bishop Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, levelling Saint Nicholas almost to the ground. The Holy Trinity church carries 1681 frescoes by master zograph Radul, the iconostasis is the work of Dimitrije Daskal with Radul's 1680 Great Deesis, and additional icons are by Maksim Tujković. The monastery treasury holds a chalice of Tsar Paul I, a deed of donation from Empress Catherine II, the 1600 handwritten Gospel of Gavril Cetinjski, and a library of around 5,000 books. The Russian one-armed monk Jegor Stroganov built the 3 km stone Jegor's Road from Sveti Stefan up to the monastery over ten years.