ИСТИНА

The present paper analyzes the connection between the lightening system and ritual significance of enlightened and dark spaces in the Ascension Church of Dečani Monastery. More precisely, it discusses the modes of directing and spreading of natural light and its involvement in church services, relics’ veneration, commemorations, and presentation of state and ecclesiastic powers. It claims that some solutions were envisaged during the building’s design stage, whereas others were developed by using arrangements of painting and decorative elements (e.g., marble floors and barriers) and positioning of holy objects (e.g., relics, icons). The Ascension Church of Dečani, built in 1327-35 by masters led by the Franciscan Vitus of Kotor, was commissioned by Serbian King Stefan Uroš III and his son Stefan Dušan for an Orthodox brotherhood. Consequently, by utilizing Romanesque and Gothic elements both outside and inside, the builders created, nevertheless, an interior suited to Orthodox liturgical practice. Initially intended as katholikon of the royal monastery and burial place for Stefan Uroš’s family, the church received an additional function after the sanctification of the royal founder and the development of his relics’ cult (by 1343). The allocation of distinct functions to individual church areas determined different degrees and modes of enlightenment, and provoked appropriate sensations in the beholders. The extremely high dome decorated with the Pantokrator and Heavenly Liturgy and filled with intensive daylight became a visible manifestation of the divine realm and its inaccessibility to humans. As liturgical core, the sanctuary and central nave were enlightened during morning hours by three altar windows and the gradually-increasing eastern light materialized through optical means the purifying powers of the Eucharist. The strong light of day hours illuminated the southern bay and highlighted those images and places associated with political power (e.g., ktetor portraits, dynastic iconographies, tombs, and royal seat). For articulating the juxtaposition of images related to the Nemanjići dynasty and their Biblical prototypes, the windows’ sconcheons were unevenly cut out, allowing a preferential projection of daylight upon these typological representations and the royal throne intended for the king’s visits. Daylight played the most important role in relation to the kibotion containing the relics of the Holy King Stefan Uroš III. Placed on the southern side of the altar’s royal doors, the kibotion is directly illuminated by a strong sunbeam coming from South during late morning and early day hours. During these hours, the monks perform every Thursday the Paraklesis for the holy king, while pilgrims ceremonially worship the relics. This way, the kibotion showered by sunlight signifies the divine grace granted to the royal founder, which spreads during worship from St. Stefan’s relics to people. In the katholikon of Dečani, natural light is arranged in such way that it interacts with the moving performers of rituals and painted wall surfaces. It de-personalizes the ministering priests in the altar, who move against the triple windows’ intensive light; filled with incense fume, it creates an otherworldly environment for the community of believers. Finally, the light’s absence from the northern aisle transforms this area separated by marble barriers into a gloomy space suitable for those commemorative services taking place in St. Demetrius’ Chapel.