Manasija Monastery, 2km north of the town of Despotovac, was a refuge for artists and writers fleeing the Turkish invasion of Kosovo in the early 1400s. Many consider its vivid frescos to be predecessors to the Serbian equivalent of Renaissance art. From the outside this structure defies the concept of a monastery as a place of peace and spirituality. What confronts visitors is a massive block of a fortress. The surviving frescoes are patchy, but still have startling vitality and colour.
