Devič monastery, a convent in the Drenica woods

Of all the monasteries in the north, Devič is the most out of the way, tucked into a wood in the Drenica area about 16 km from Mitrovica. I count that as part of the appeal. It’s a convent with nearly six centuries behind it and a founding story you can tell in two lines.

The founding, as the Eparchy tells it

The Eparchy of Raška-Prizren, the Serbian Orthodox diocese it belongs to, places it in woodland at the foot of Mount Devič, about 5 km south of Skënderaj, within the bounds of the village of Llaushë (Lauša). It relates that Despot Đurađ Branković built it around 1434 in thanks for his daughter’s healing through the prayers of St Joanikije of Devič, who had died in 1430 and whose relics rest in the monastery. The main church is dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.

Inside the walls

The complex was extended several times and today, according to the same source, takes in the main church, a chapel over St Joanikije’s tomb and other smaller churches. The wall paintings come in several layers, and an inscription from 1578 records a renovation and the frescoes added then. That’s what I’d want to look at properly.

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Damage, rebuilding and community

The OSCE’s 2018 profile of Skënderaj records that the monastery was damaged in March 2004 and partly rebuilt in 2009. KFOR, the NATO mission, kept it under its protection until 17 April 2012, when security passed to Kosovo Police, and in 2014 it reported no problems since. That same year the access road was surfaced with European Union money and a bridge was widened, and in November 2016 KFOR removed the last military barriers, at the nuns’ own request. The most recent news I found is from July 2025, when KFOR helicopters dropped water on a wildfire edging towards the monastery. Today it’s home to a community of nuns led by their abbess, Mother Anastasija, according to the Eparchy.

One of the region’s Special Zone monasteries

The 2008 Law 03/L-039 lists the Special Protective Zones one by one, and several monasteries in the Mitrovica region appear on it. In Zveçan, Banjska and Sokolica; in Zubin Potok, Duboki Potok; in Leposaviq, Sočanica and, with a 100-metre buffer, St Petka and the Holy Healers. Devič is the only one in Skënderaj municipality, and Llaushë, the village whose land it stands on, had 2,201 people at the 2024 census, the municipality’s second largest settlement after the town.

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How to visit

Hours, admission and visitor etiquette appear on no official page I’ve found, so I’ll leave them blank. Still, three things are clear. There’s a surfaced road, Kosovo Police handle security, and it’s a lived-in convent, not a museum. So I’d go by day, dressed modestly, unhurried, and asking before stepping into the church or getting the camera out. If you’d like to see it on a feast day, St Joanikije is celebrated on 15 December with a liturgy, and over a thousand worshippers came in 2019 according to the Serbian press, so expect crowds.

You’ll need a car. It’s about 33 km from Pristina and 16 from Mitrovica as the crow flies, and I’d pair it with the rest of Skënderaj in half a day; the FCDO advises against driving at night, which on these country lanes I’d take seriously. If Kosovo’s Orthodox monasteries interest you, Gračanica is a World Heritage Site, and up north there’s Sokolica monastery and Banjska, all set out in the Mitrovica region guide.

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