Saint Stefan Monastery in Lipovac

Northeast of Aleksinac, near the Saint Stefan river source in village Lipovac, there is a Monastery of the Holy Archdeacon and First Martyr Stefan.

Above the monastery on Leskovik rock there was an established medieval Lipovac city which is mentioned as a fortress of the Serbian Despotate. However, Musa, son of Bajezid, occupied it in 1413.

The temple was built most likely before 1399 as a court church of a local magnate, who ruled from Lipovac. Archeologist Marko Popovic thinks that the temple was built between 1370 and 1375. Archeological researches proved that the architectural unit was much larger than today monastery complex.

The monastery survived its first destruction in 1413 when Sultan Musa ravaged Lipovac. The monastery was quickly renovated and several times lightly suffered because of Turks. After the liberation of the South regions in 1878 the monastery was renovated again. After the World War II, almost all of the monastery’s property was nationalized and it was renewed in 1974.