Bukovo Monastery

A couple of kilometers from Negotin, on a forested hill lays the beautiful Bukovo Monastery overlooking villages toward the Dunav River and behind pieces of Romania and Bulgaria. 

The layout of the monastery (source)

 The monastery was founded by Serbian King Stefan Milutin (1282-1321) of the Nemanjic dynasty in the late 13th- or early 14th century.

The church is dedicated to St. Father Nikolaj the Wonderworker and by style is a special variant of the "Moravian School". The church has an elongated shape of a trefoil and was built as a single nave with arched barrel vault and without dome. The narthex was build later in the 19th century.

The wall around the monastery, the belltower and the colonnade were added in the 1930s.

In 2006 two new buildings were erected on the place of the old dorms, which were in ruinous state.

The church interior is richly decorated and in the narthex some frescoes in romantic style made in 1902 by Steva Todorovic shows some members of the Nemanjic Dynasty.

Fresco of Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia (Стефан Урош II Милутин) and founder of the Bukovo monastery

Fresco of Stefan Nemanja (Стефан Немања) 1113 – 1199, Grand Prince of Raska from 1166 to 1196 and founder of the Nemanjić dynasty.

Fresco of Tsar Uros

In this fresco:
Sveti Sava (Rastko Nemanjic) came back from Hilandar Monastery (Mount Atos) to try to make peace between his two older brothers Stefan and Vukan (Stefan as second born was put on the thron instead of the oldest brother Vukan).

Fresco of  Stephen Uroš III (Стефан Урош III) , 1285 – 1331

The monastery has a good website with lots of pictures and information:
http://manastirbukovo.org