The Tavna Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery, located in the village of Banjica in the City of Bijeljina, on the border of three municipalities Bijeljina, Zvornik and Ugljevik. The monastery is one of the oldest buildings in this area (Semberije and Majevica). Throughout its history, it has shared the fate of the locals and has been the spiritual and cultural centre of the Serbian people of the area.
Its construction is attributed to Nemanjić Dynasty. The chronicles from Peć say that it was erected by King Dragutin’s sons Vladislav and Urošic. The present-day church of the Tavna Monastery was built on the foundations of the original church.
It was mentioned in the earliest Turkish tax defters from 1533 and 1548, and from 1548 to 1586 it was explicitly mentioned as a monastery. The Tavna Monastery was destroyed during the Turkish rule, but it was rebuilt under the leadership of the hajduks (outlaws or freedom fighters in the Balkans). The folk tradition attributes the restoration of the monastery to Starina Novak, a hajduk from the second half of the sixteenth century and his brother Radivoje. The monastery church was painted with frescoes probably at the beginning of the seventeenth century, since the modest remains of the frescoes are much alike to frescoes of the Žitomislić and Ozren monasteries, which were made in the period from 1608 to 1609.
The monastery is a cultural monument and it is under the protection of the state. It belongs to the Eparchy of Zvornik and Tuzla.
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