The monastery church is dedicated to St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Sv. Arhanđeli Mihajlo i Gavrilo) (November 21)
According to lore, this monastery was built by Serbian king Dragutin (Nemanjić) in the 13th century. In literature, it can also be found that the monastery church was painted in the 1460s. In historical sources, it was first mentioned in a document of Ottoman Turks from the 16th century. It is known that at the end of the 17th century, fleeing from the Ottomans, the monks of the Vitovnica monastery (near Petrovac na Mlavi) came to Bešenovo, carrying the most valuable liturgical objects.
The monastery church was renovated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mid-18th century konaks surrounded the church, giving the whole complex a grandiose look. During the Second World War, the monastery was robbed, and during the German bombing it was completely destroyed. The renovation began in 2013 and continues to this day. Part of the liturgical objects, preserved after the destruction in Second World War, is kept in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.
Until the Second World War, the monastery church had three iconostases. There is also information that, probably at the end of the 18th century, part of the oldest icons was replaced by a new one – the work of Vasilije Romanovič. It is known that the Karlovac icon painter Dimitrije Bačević donated the icon of Kirik and Julita to the monastery in the second half of the 18th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new iconostasis and wall paintings were painted by Stevan Aleksić, one of the most important Serbian painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, these eleven icons are kept in the Museum of Church Art in Sremska Mitrovica.
In addition to the temple patron saint’s day, the monastery celebrates St. Kirik and Julita (July 28), when the faithful people gather for the convocation. In the monastery temple there is the tomb of Aleksandar Rašković the noble (buried here in 1773) and several tombs in the crypt below, which became visible to all visitors during the renovation of the church, by installing a glass floor structure. Preliminary archaeological research confirms that the remains of an ancient necropolis were found here – the graves of the burned deceased buried here from 3rd to 4th century AD, as well as ceramic and glass vessels, and bronze fibulae.
TOURIST INFORMATION: Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Srem/ Bešenovo Monastery https://www.eparhija-sremska.rs/manastiri/besenovo/
