The Church of Saint Luke in the Old Town of Kotor is one of the most significant and historically interesting sacred buildings in the entire Boka Kotor.
Here are the key details about this shrine:
Location: It is located in the very heart of the Old Town of Kotor, on the eponymous St. Luke's Square (where the large Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas is also located in the immediate vicinity).
History and origins: It was built in 1195, during the reign of the great Serbian prefect Stefan Nemanja. This is evidenced by the preserved marble foundation inscription on the western facade, which states that the church was built by Zadar nobleman Mauro Casafrangi with his wife Bona.
Architecture: It was built in the Romanesque-Byzantine style as a modest but extremely harmonious one-nave building with a dome. It is the only church in Kotor that did not suffer major destruction or drastic changes in earthquakes, so it has preserved its original medieval form to this day.
A unique historical role (two altars): Over the centuries, with the influx of the Orthodox population to Kotor under Venetian rule, the church has been given over to the use of Orthodox believers since 1657. For more than two centuries (until the middle of the 19th century), there were two altars in it — Catholic and Orthodox — and services of both rites were equally performed in it, which is a unique example of religious tolerance in this region. After that, the church completely becomes the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Interior and floor: The floor of the church is paved with tombstones under which prominent citizens of Kotor were buried for centuries (until the beginning of the 19th century). The interior is decorated with the remains of an ancient painting from the 12th century, as well as a valuable iconostasis, which is the work of the famous painting school of Dimitrijević-Rafailović from Risno.
