Safe among the giants (mountains)
A place were peace lives
Born in a canon of the Jablanica river, hidden in a little valley and protected with strong stream hills, the Pustinja monastery is one the most beautiful monasteries in Serbia. It is about 20 km far from the city of city Valjevo, and it is dedicated to the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Thanks to its tucked positions, the monastery had a relatively peaceful existence, so the interior of the church is well preserved. Diversity of colorful colors, jewels walls on the inside, as well as those on the church facade. The monastery has wall frescoes which are very rare, and some of them originate from the 17. century. Thanks to the hard work of a few sisters’ hoods and donors, in the latest years the monastery has developed significant, and today exists as a female monastery.
Blooming flowers and trees fulfills the astonished yard and surround the oldest inhabitant of the complex, a hundred years old pine tree. Counted in the monument of nature it completes the picture of spirituality and beauty. Mother Nature has endowed the immediate surroundings of the monastery with two sources of drinking water that people believe are medicinal.
Inspired by the monastery, famous Serbian poet Desanka Maksimović wrote:
“I am happy to have visited this Holy Place How would I have gone to the world if I had not been here and worshiped the icons in this Holy Place.”
This record is still keeping in the monastery book, and together with the temple it continues to create the history.