Poganovo Monastery

Poganovo was founded around 1395 by a noble family in the last years of medieval Serbian independence, and it sits on a bend of the Jerma with cliffs on both sides, a single church of the Morava school with a high dome and a narthex added later. Its frescoes date mostly from 1499 and are the reason art historians come: the painting is accomplished, with an unusual iconographic programme, and it survives in reasonable condition. A double-sided icon from the monastery, one of the notable Byzantine works of the region, was removed in the early twentieth century and is now in Sofia. A small monastic community lives here. The isolation of the setting, deep in a gorge with almost nothing around, is much of what visitors remember.

What you actually see

• The 1499 frescoes - the painted programme filling the church.
• Morava-school architecture - the high-domed church and its stonework.
• The gorge setting - cliffs rising on both sides of the monastery.
• The monastic community - a small living foundation in a remote valley.

When to go

April to October for the road through the gorge. The monastery is open year round but winter access can be difficult. Services take precedence over visits, and mornings are usually quiet.

Honest expectations

Photography inside is normally forbidden and the frescoes are dark, so a torch and time for the eyes to adjust help. Modest dress is required. There is no interpretation on site and little in English. The road in through the gorge is rough and narrow.

Nearby

Jerma gorge surrounds it; Pirot lies northwest.