Gračanica monastery

Kosovo is the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church and is dotted with some of its eldest monasteries. After the battle of Kosovo in 1389 when Serbs were defeated at Gazimestan by the advancing Ottoman Turks all of the frescoes in Gračanica monastery were de-eyed according to conqueror’s iconoclasm. ‘Those who wish to cut the heart from Serbians want to wipe them from this Earth. It is a battle that is not over yet’ said Orthodox Bishop on the 618th anniversary at the site of a battle that Serbs consider a heroic defeat suffered in the holy cause of defending Christian Europe from the Muslim Turks. The quote is taken from the periodical, published by the sisterhood of the Gračanica convent.