Ostrog Monastery

The Ostrog Monastery, 17th century, as by a God’s hand, was cut into the vertical Ostrog rock. It is one of the most visited holy places in the world. Almost every day thousands of Montenegrins and pilgrims all over the world climb towards the monastery. Ostrog is dedicated to St Basil of Ostrog, an eastern Herzegovina Metropolitan, who made the monastery a general sanctuary for all and a spiritual centre in the hard times under the Ottoman rule. The monastery consists of the Upper and Lower Ostrog, The Upper Ostrog has two churches cut into the rock – The Holy Cross Church, which St Basil built on the place of an earlier hermitage cell, and an earlier Presentation of the Virgin Church, where today St Basil’s the miraculous remains are kept. The construction of the Lower Ostrog and its Holy Trinity Church started at the time of St Basil. There is also a small church of the Holy Martyr Stanko, dedicated to a young shepherd who was tortured and killed by the Turks.

RELIGION AND TRADITION

The Ostrog Monastery held some important relics –  St John the Baptist’s hand, today kept in the Cetinje Monastery and the Virgin Filermosa icon, one of the oldest icons in the world, today kept in the Cetinje Museum.

GEOGRAPHY

It is on the Ostrog mantel, above the Bjelopavlić plain, near Nikšić,  Montenegro.

OUTSTANDING FIGURES

St Basil of Ostrog.