Wardar style or Serbian-Byzantine or Macedonian style - a medieval style in architecture common in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, Macedonia and western Bulgaria. The style arose under the strong influence of the Byzantine architectural style, but is largely more ascetic. The most common name for the Vardar style is given by the name of the Vardar River. The beginning of the era of this style can be considered the church of St. Nikita in Skopje and the Church of the Virgin Mary Levishki in the city of Prizren . The heyday of this style in Serbian architecture came in the 13th and 14th centuries .
A feature of this style is the base of the temple made in the form of a cross and, as a rule, one dome, five-domed churches were built much less frequently. The appearance of the walls was usually carried out in the Byzantine style using gray, yellow and red bricks and stone laid out in such a way as to produce some kind of pattern. The inner surface of the walls was painted with frescoes.
The sunset of the Vardar style occurred in the last quarter of the XIV century when temples in the so-called Moravian style were erected in the places where this style spread.
The most famous buildings in the Vardar style
- Church of the Virgin Mary Levishka
- Royal Church in Studenice
- Monastery Gracanica
- Monastery of the Pechsky Patriarchate
- Lesnovsky monastery
Literature
- Aleksandar Deroko , “Monumental and Decorative Architecture in the Middle Ages of Srbiјi” (third edition) Beograd 1985 . (Serb.)
- Јovan Deretiћ , “The Cultural History of Srba” , Beograd 2005 . ISBN 86-331-2386-X (Serb.)