Oplenac Royal Mausoleum, Serbia

As Byzantika was relocated from Denmark to Australia, and had an extended break, here is my first post in a while. I am currently on holiday in Europe gathering supplies and inspiration for upcoming projects. Be sure to keep an eye out soon for new Byzantika products.

I found a big source of inspiration at the Oplenac Royal Mausoleum Опленац (where I took these few photos), the historic place of the mausoleum of the Serbian Karađorđević Royal Family located in central Serbia near the town of Topola. It is known for the St. George Church (црква светог Ђорђа). The Foundation in Oplenac is named after King Peter I of Yugoslavia.The initial idea of King Peter I was to carve into the walls the names of all soldiers and officers who had perished in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. But, since the church was not fully completed, and since First World War followed (1914-1918), this idea had to be abandoned. The solution was to decorate the interior of the temple with mosaics, which would be a sort of a museum of reproductions of the prettiest frescoes of the Serbian medieval arts. Copies from 60 Serbian medieval churches and monasteries had been brought to the St. George church at Oplenac. The entire mosaic has 725 painted compositions (513 in the temple and 212 in the crypt), on which there are 1500 figures. The entire area of the mosaic is 3,500 square metres with 40 million various coloured pieces of glass which have 15 thousand different varieties of colour, making the most vivid artistic impression.

Information above is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplenac if you wish to read more about this amazing church and mausoleum please follow the link.

39 Onyx slabs cover the final resting place of members of the Karageorge Dynasty on the lower floor.