Gomionica Monastery
A Serbian Orthodox convent in the heart of Zmijanje, west of Banja Luka
Hidden in the valley of the Gomionica River below the Zmijanje plateau, Gomionica Monastery is one of the most important spiritual and cultural centres of the Serbian people in the Bosnian Krajina.
The monastery stands in the village of Kmećani, near Bronzani Majdan, about 42 kilometres west of Banja Luka. Its church is dedicated to the Presentation of the Mother of God (Vavedenje) and it belongs to the Eparchy of Banja Luka of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Today it is a convent and the spiritual heart of the Zmijanje region.
The single-nave, domed church, built in the spirit of the Raška architectural school, is accompanied by a bell tower raised in 1900. Its blend of medieval church architecture and the quiet of a Krajina village makes Gomionica both a place of pilgrimage and a rewarding destination for visitors.
History
The exact year of its founding is unknown, but the monastery is thought to predate Ottoman rule. Its first written mention dates from 1540/41, when it appears in an Ottoman tax register under the name Zalužje, in the district (nahija) of Zmijanje. A 1560 Ottoman document records that abbot Andrija had already led the monastery for 24 years, showing that it existed before 1536.
At the end of the 17th century, after the Great Turkish War, the monastery was at least partly abandoned, as it was again during the 1730s; it was subsequently restored during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was badly damaged in the Second World War, and its abbot, Serafim Štrkić, was killed in 1941.
Frescoes and treasury
The oldest frescoes, in the dome of the church, were painted in the second half of the 16th century, after the restoration of the Patriarchate of Peć. In style they are linked to the masters who painted the narthexes of Peć and Gračanica and the church of Lomnica Monastery, and who restored frescoes at Studenica, Mileševa and Banja near Priboj.
The monastery treasury holds icons made between the 16th and 19th centuries, along with manuscripts and printed books from the 14th to the 17th century. A silver-gilt woodcarved cross from 1640 is now kept at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
Cultural significance
The monastery was listed as a cultural monument in 1953, and in 2006 the Commission to Preserve National Monuments included it among the National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A monastery school opened here in 1882, attended by the writer Petar Kočić.
The monastery is reached from the centre of Banja Luka, near the Kastel fortress, along the road towards Bronzani Majdan.
