THE CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS – Stari Slankamen

According to tradition the Church of St. Nicholas was built in 1468 by Vuk Grgurević known as the Fiery Dragon Wolf (Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk), the grandson of Despot Djurdj Branković. It is the oldest church in Fruška Gora and one of the oldest in Srem. Although it was being rebuilt and beautified, the church is of great cultural and historical value nowadays. The church was built in the style of the Moravian school, as trefoil structure with a dome over the central part which was removed later on. Its cultural and historical value is in that that it represents a pattern of churches built in Srem including the famous monastery church in Krušedol. Interior of the church was painted at the end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its remains are found in the first zone of the northeastern column, on the west side (standing figures of Three Hierarchs – Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian). The interior of the church was rebuilt in the second half of the eighteenth century. At that time the curved iconostasis of Baroque and Rococo forms was made. Pictures of the iconostasis were made by Stefan Tenecki (1764), the famous painter from Arad. Besides the rich library of rare books, it contains many important manuscripts from the Middle Ages, and many church treasures. The fresco was probably made in 1470. Valuable icons including the “Madonna with the Christ,” the art-work of Theodore Kračun are kept in the church. All the icons are from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.