Church of St. Father Nikolai
Location: Vasilj
Year of construction: 1842.
The church was built in 1842 on the site of an older sacral building.
It is the oldest village church in the territory of the municipality of Knjaževac.
It was consecrated by Bishop Dositej Novaković, during the reign of Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević, as evidenced by the inscription on the western side of the temple: “In the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit built this Holy Temple of St. Father Nikolai in honor and glory of the Holy Trinity, during the reign of his Eminence Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević with the blessing of His Eminence Dositej and reverend Matija Popović in 1842.”
It was burned in 1876, during the Serbian-Turkish War. It was restored in 1908.
To the west of the church, next to the entrance to the courtyard of the former parish house, there is a covenant cross dedicated to the Transfer of the Relics of St. Nikolai, which was built by Veljko Milojković from Vasilj, in 1897. To the west of the church, there is a belfry of a light wooden structure built on a stone-walled, high plinth, covered with a tiled roof on four sides. A fragment of a stone tombstone is located on the southeast side, next to the wall of the churchyard.
Gallery
Architecture
The church is a simple triconchal building built of solid material in a combination of stone and brick, plastered and painted white. It is vaulted with a half-circular two-pitched roof, covered with tiles. The interior of the church is divided into three aisles. On the eastern side of the church, there is a very wide, semi-circular apse on the outside and inside, vaulted with a semi-dome and covered with a tiled roof, slightly lower than the roof of the church. In the same way, the arched vaulted conches are also covered.
On all sides of the church, there are small, very narrow window openings above which are lunettes with crosses painted in red. Above the entrance door on the western facade of the church, there is an arched vault with an icon of the patron saint of the temple, made on sheet metal. Above it is a small window opening. There is another side door on the south side. Both entrances to the church are framed by stepped stone arches resting on massive stone pilaster capitals. The interior of the church is not painted with icons. The vault is painted light blue and decorated with six-pointed stars.
The wooden iconostasis was created at the beginning of the 20th century. It is divided horizontally into three zones. The iconostasis is marbled and decorated with gilded vignettes of vines and other floral ornaments. According to the report of the commission of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments from the 70s of the 20th century, the painter Milisav Marković from Knjaževac made the icons for the Church in Vasilj.
The lower zone belongs to the icons of St. Nicholas, on the northern doors, the throne icon of the Holy Mother of God with Christ, the Annunciation on the royal doors, icons of St. John, on the south door. In the second zone, there is an apostolic order with apostolic couples depicted on three icons on both sides of the central representation of the Holy Trinity, above which there is a field with the Moon, the Sun and the Star, and above it, in the highest zone, there is a sphere wrapped in a snake from which there is a Crucifixion with a representation of the Mother of God and St. John.
