Serbia - Fortified Manasija Monastery

Manasija Monastery is located in the Resava river gorge, about 135km south-east of Belgrade. As an endowment of Despot Stefan Lazarević, the monastery was built in the hard times after the Battle at Kosovo (1389) and its construction lasted from 1406/7 to 1418. Its special feature is its fortification, capable of defending and protecting the monastery settlement. The Manasija fortification has eleven towers and a specially defended section at its east end with the twelfth tower. In their defence and architectural features, the towers are identical to each other - all having the ground level, six storeys and the passageway with merlons. They are connected by defensive walls - the ramparts, also with merlon crenelation. Between the towers and the ramparts a connection is made through special passages on the fourth storey of each tower, allowing the defenders to move around all the time, as well as a good monastery defence. Only a donjon was not built in the same way.