Krusedol Monastery

Krusedol Monastery tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free, as at Serbian monasteries generally, and a donation box stands by the church door. Krusedol lies on the Fruska Gora ridge about thirty kilometres south of Novi Sad, and there is no useful bus, so the choice is a hire car, a taxi or a tour. Day trips from Novi Sad or Belgrade cost a moderate amount and usually combine the monastery with Sremski Karlovci, the small baroque town below with its seminary, its cathedral and its dessert wine, which makes a coherent half day.

Private guides charge more and can add two or three of the other Fruska Gora monasteries, of which sixteen survive out of thirty-five. Nuns sell honey, brandy and icons at a table by the gate. Nothing needs booking and the monastery is almost never busy. The nearest village, Krusedol Selo, has a single konak that serves lunch to groups if arranged in advance.

Visiting Krusedol Monastery: what to see

Maksim Brankovic, the last of a line of Serbian despots, and his mother Angelina founded Krusedol between 1509 and 1514 as the family mausoleum, and both were later canonised. It became the richest of the Fruska Gora houses, with ninety monks in 1670, and the seat of a metropolitan in 1708. Retreating Ottoman troops burned it in 1716 and it was rebuilt, which is why sixteenth-century frescoes in the sanctuary sit beneath eighteenth-century baroque painting in the nave, the two layers meeting visibly on the walls. The iconostasis is carved and gilded in the Habsburg manner.

Several Serbian rulers are buried here, including King Milan Obrenovic, who died in Vienna in 1901, and Princess Ljubica. The monastery is still inhabited by a small community of nuns and the church is used daily. A separate bell tower and a walled courtyard with a well survive from the eighteenth-century rebuilding, and the refectory keeps a long stone table. Portraits of the Habsburg emperors hang in the guest quarters, a reminder that the Serbian church in Vojvodina lived for two centuries under Vienna rather than Constantinople.

Krusedol Monastery opening hours and the best time to go

Open during daylight, every day, with services in the early morning and evening. Fruska Gora is a national park and the drive through the beech forest is part of the visit; it is green in spring, hot and shadeless in July, and often foggy in November. Winter can bring snow to the ridge and the roads are cleared slowly. The monastery's feast of the Annunciation on 7 April draws a crowd.

Dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered, and women are asked to cover their heads inside, with scarves available at the door. Photography inside the church is not allowed. Allow forty minutes at Krusedol and a full day for the Fruska Gora circuit with Sremski Karlovci and a wine cellar. The Fruska Gora wine road runs along the ridge and several cellars near Irig open to visitors without appointment.