The Church of the Holy Archangels near Prizren – A New Type of the Nemanjid Royal Mausoleum?
The Church of the Holy Archangels near Prizren – A New Type of the Nemanjid Royal Mausoleum?

Summary/Abstract: The church of the Holy Archangels near Prizren was built as the mausoleum of the first Serbian Emperor (Tsar) Stefan Uroš IV Dušan. The first part of the paper discusses the importance of the five domes in pronouncing imperial dignity by referencing the imperial mausolea of Constantinople. Furthermore, the realization of this notion is considered together with the non-funerary five-domed endowments of King Milutin and the general Nemanjid tradition of erecting royal mausolea that evoke the church of the Mother of God Evergetis in Studenica, the burial place of the dynasty’s founder.While preparing his resting place, Emperor Dušan decided to mark his tomb with his sculpted likeness – a gisant. Therefore, the second part of the paper is concerned with this unusual choice of a funerary monument characteristic of the late medieval western elite. However, the tomb effigy is contextualized in specific cultural and political circumstances instead of being interpreted as a western influence. It is argued that the recumbent figure of the Emperor referenced the tradition of depicting saintly relics in the Christian East, thus emphasizing Stefan Dušan’s spiritual cleanliness. This was a powerful image able to oppose the anxiety that arose with the condemnation that came from Constantinople when Patriarch Kallistos I excommunicated the Serbian ruler together with Patriarch Joanikije II and his clergy.

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