Sopoćani is one of the quietest and most beautiful monasteries in Serbia, and you may well be the only person in the church. It stands in a green valley a few kilometres west of Novi Pazar, near the springs of the Raška river, in a region that was the heartland of the early Serbian kingdom. King Stefan Uroš I founded it in the 1250s, and he is buried here, and the church was decorated with frescoes between about 1260 and 1270, painted by artists whose name we do not know but whose command of colour and space put them in the first rank of medieval European painting. UNESCO listed Sopoćani together with the nearby Old Ras in 1979.
The great fresco is the Dormition of the Virgin on the west wall, a huge scene in which the apostles gather around the bed while Christ holds the Virgin's soul in the form of a small swaddled child. The blues and whites, preserved remarkably well, were laid on in a way that anticipates the Italian Renaissance by a generation or two, and the faces show a quiet feeling that was rare for the time. Look up and the walls seem to glow.
The monastery was deserted for a long period after the Ottoman conquest, and parts of the structure decayed before being restored in the twentieth century. It is now a working convent, and the sisters ask for modest dress and silence inside the church.
The ride in is a lovely one. From Novi Pazar the road follows a small valley to the village of Sokolovica, with meadows, orchards and plum trees, and the last stretch is a quiet lane that rises gently to the monastery gates. Novi Pazar itself has a mixed Bosniak and Serb history and a distinctly Ottoman feel, with mosques, a bazaar and a fine hammam, and is an easy place to find fuel and a meal of grilled kebabs, ćevapi, with fresh bread and kajmak. The road from here to the monastery of Studenica to the north-west, on the ride list, runs through high farmland and forest, with some beautiful bends.
Spring and early autumn are best, with plum blossom in April and golden light in October. Winters are cold, and snow can close the quieter lanes. Carry a scarf for the church, and leave plenty of time, because the silence is the main thing.