Diocese of Raska-Prizren issued a statement with f=great concern over the information that announced the beginning of construction work on the site of an old Serbian medieval church, St. Nicholas, which was the cathedral church for the Serbian Orthodox bishops of Novo Brdo and Gracanica, and which is located near the Novo Brdo fortress.

Diocese in its statement says that the church was built in the middle of the 14th century and was enlarged during the reign of Despot Stephan Lazarevic after 1455. According to all evidence available, it was later turned into a mosque during the Ottoman period, and then was later destroyed by an earthquake and remained in ruins up to the present day, like the other remains of the town surrounding it, which was quickly abandoned.

Similar to the other churches and monasteries built by the Nemanjic dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries such as Sopocani, Arilje, and Visoki Decani, the Novo Brdo Church of St. Nicholas was constructed in the style of a Romanesque basilica, and until the fall of Novo Brdo to the Ottoman rule, it was the main center of Orthodox worship for the region.

See the full statement at: https://bit.ly/2MuzQqC