Ostrog Monastery
The Monastery of Ostrog (Serbian: Манастир Острог) is a monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church located in Montenegro. It is situated high up against an almost vertical background of the large rock of Ostroška Greda, overlooking the Zeta River. The monastery is dedicated to St. Basil of Ostrog (‘‘Sveti Vasilije Ostroški’‘).
The monastery was founded by Basil, the Metropolitan of Herzegovina, in the seventeenth century. After his death in 1671 he was buried in the lower cave-church, that was dedicated to the Presentation of the Mother of God to the Temple, and was subsequently glorified. The monastery is built around two cave-churches, the lower, and older, church was constructed in 1655 and the upper church, that was dedicated to the Holy Cross, in the eighteenth century. The frescoes in the lower church were created late in the seventeenth century, while those in the upper church were painted by the master Radul who successfully over came the challenge presented by the natural surfaces of the cave and laid his frescoes on the rock surfaces.
The monastery is situated between the cities of Danilovgrad and Niksic and is one of the most frequently visited monasteries by Orthodox Christians in Montenegro, if not the Balkans. The present day appearance of the monastery is the result of the re-construction that occurred between 1923 and 1926 following an intense fire that destroyed a large part of the monastery, but spared the cave-churches.
The monastery, and particularly the reliquary containing St Basil’s relics in the Church of the Presentation, are the focal point of many visitors and pilgrims, many of whom had prayed before the reliquary and reported cures of their ailments and improvements with difficulties in their lives.
