THE TREASURY OF THE MONASTERY KRKA

Monastery Krka had a treasury, from the time it had been founded. It is, at the same time, a spiritual treasury and the chronicle of the times, reflecting the life of Orthodox Serbs in this region. The treasury of the monastery Krka has been plundered and ravaged several times, but it was never completely destroyed. Almost always Krka’s brotherhood managed to put away in secret places the most valuable church artistic and liturgical objects. They knew well that these were consecrated valuables and charters of the Serbian nation that was torn, for centuries, between the Roman Catholic Venetian republic, the Austrian empire, France, Hungary, and Croatia, on the one hand, and the Turks, on the other.
Considering their number and artistic manufacture, the valuables of the monastery Krka are among the most richest treasuries of the Serbian Orthodox Church, right after the treasuries of the monasteries of Chilandar, Deani and the Cetinje.

Icons

The Krka icons also include numerous works by Cretan, Russian and Serbian painters, who lived between the XVI and the XX century. These icons are the works of known and unknown icon-painters, including the works of Georgije Mihalik, Spiridon Rom, Vuk Sudarevic and others. There is also a picture of St. Jerome, the work of Francesco de Vana dating from 1562.
A large number of icons were obtained at the time of Krka superiors Makarije Krneta, Nikanor Ranojevic and Jerotej Kovaevic.
Antimensia

A special part of this treasury is the collection of antimensia mostly impressed from wood engravings and copperplates, consecrated by Serbian patriarches, metropolitans and bishops between the end of the XVII and the end of the XIX century. Apart from the antimension of Patriarch Arsenije IV Jovanovic Sakabenta (mid XVIII century), in the Krka Treasury is also kept an antimension consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Avramije. A number of the antimensia had been consecrated by the Metropolitans of Belgrade and Karlovac, Mojsije Petrovic and Pavle Nenadovic.

Church textile

The monastery treasury also contains numerous bishops', priests' and deacons' garments decorated with silver and golden threads. The most interesting among the church textile is the epitrachelion of St. Sava bought by Krka monk Vikentije Knezevic at the monastery Studenica in 1842.
Encolpions

Encolpions represent a small treasury collection. They are mostly engraved, with a filigree chain and decorations with precious stones. They were made between the XVI and the XIX centuries. The encolpion that belonged to Bishop Michael "was made in the summer of 7197" (1689).
Portraits

In the monastery Krka there is an entire gallery of artistic portraits of church dignitaries. The portraits mostly present abbots, monastery superiors and Dalmatian bishops. One of the oldest portraits is that of Joanikije Bolgarin from 1771, then the ones of archimandrite Savatije Vasiljevic (1755-1806), of archimandrite Neofit Njegu{ (the work of Vlaho Bukovac), of archimandrite Atanasije ^urlic from 1885, of hieromonk Stefan Knezevic, of archimandrite Josif Knezevic; and archimandrite Jerotej Kovaevic, (the work of painter Marodic in Vienna 1885). The monastery premises also contain the portraits of archimandrite Nikanor Rajevic from 1770, hieromonk Vikentije Kovaevic, hieromonk Amvrosije Kolundzic, archimandrite Nikodim Opaic (the work of Milorad Mihailovic Bata), and hieromonk Makarije Vukadinovic.
THE MONASTERY LIBRARY

The monastery library was formed at the same time as the monastery Krka itself. In time, numerous valuable books disappeared or were destroyed. However, rich book fund is being constantly renewed. One of the first inventories of the Library of the monastery Krka was done in 1844 by Stefan Knezevic – a future Bishop of Dalmatia.

In 1965 a new inventory of the library was made by Milan Radeka, a priest from Karlovac. That year, over 4,000 books were inventoried and divided into groups: old books in manuscript, old printed books, XVIII century books and all the works published by 1850.

Forming part of the Library are also the libraries of archimandrites Nikodim Opaic (1902-1964), Mihailo Budimir and others. However, special attention require individual editions – over 50 books in manuscript created in the period between the XIII and XVIII centuries. Most of the theological books in manuscript are from the XIV century - these are mostly Menaions. The Four-gospel Book of Mokro Polje was written either at the end of the XIII or the beginning of the XIV century. Around 1370, monk Jov transcribed the Collection Book of theological texts. The Menaion for March was transcribed in the XIV century, and the Menaion for the month of February appeared in 1598. In this theological book, the signature of scribe lsaija has also been preserved.

The Krka’s Library also has many old and extremely valuable printed books. Among the individual editions, interesting is the Octoechos, printed in Cetinje in 1494. A rarity is the Collection Book of Bozidar Vukovic printed in 1536 on parchment. This theological book is the only known example of a Collection book printed on parchment.

Among the valuable books are also the works of Dositej Obradovic, Vuk Karadzic, Nikodim Mila{, Serbian Metropolitan Mihailo Jovanovic and many others.

THE MONASTERY CEMETERY

The monastery cemetery is located right next to the church of St. Archangel Michael. In that burial place of monks, eternal peace has been found by the former monks and abbots of Krka: Silvester Vukovic, Jerotej Kovavic, Atanasije ^urlic, Makarije Vukadinovic, Nikodim Opaic and many others.

In the chapel of St. Sava there is a sarcophagus in which reputable Dalmatian Bishop Stefan Knezevic was buried in 1890. At the entrance to this chapel stands a tablet with a text about the completion and consecration of this chapel on January 14th 1876 due to the efforts of Bishop Stefan Knezevic.

TESTIMONIES

At the entrance to the monastery church there is a built-in stone tablet depicting a vine with grapes. This detail done in stone, as well as the monastery baptistry, were found in and brought from the old town of Burnum, a place where used to be several monasteries.
The monastery Krka had also been marked on the geographic map my made by Mateja Pagano in 1530.