Serbian Ministry of Culture: Unlawful religious gathering at the site of the Monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Hvosno a case of historical revisionism

The Serbian Ministry of Culture has strongly condemned the unlawful conduct of a religious ceremony and public gathering within the Special Protective Zone of the archaeological site of the medieval Monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Hvosno, on the remains of a Serbian medieval church near the village of Studenica in the municipality of Istok, which took place without the knowledge or consent of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC).

"This act represents yet another attempt to revise historical facts and to appropriate the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It also constitutes a violation of the very legal provisions adopted by the Provisional Institutions in Pristina concerning special protective zones for Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches, and other religious and historical sites of particular significance," the Ministry stated in its response to Kosovo Online.

The Ministry warned that it is particularly alarming that this event is part of increasingly frequent efforts by Pristina to use pseudo-historical interpretations to revise historical sources and distort the centuries-old identity of a space that has undeniably and continuously belonged to the spiritual, cultural, and institutional jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Such an approach, the Ministry stressed, is not only harmful but dangerous, as it seeks to erase or dissolve Serbian cultural and religious heritage into a fabricated Kosovan narrative—falsifying the past, ignoring historical facts, and ultimately preventing the survival of Serbs on their ancestral lands.

"This is further evidenced by the fact that, during the gathering, a Roman Catholic priest delivered a speech inciting interreligious and interethnic hostility," the statement continued.

The Ministry recalled that the medieval Serbian Monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Hvosno—built in the Raska architectural style and erected within the episcopacy founded by Saint Sava in 1219—remained in uninterrupted liturgical use by the Serbian Orthodox Church until the end of the 17th century, when it suffered damage during turbulent historical events. Numerous medieval inscriptions and 13th-century documents testify to the monastery's profound spiritual and historical significance.

In light of this, the Ministry of Culture called on all relevant international organizations to respond and publicly condemn the usurpation and attempts to falsify history.

Earlier today, the Raska-Prizren Diocese warned that a public gathering with a religious ceremony was held on July 23 at the archaeological site of the medieval Monastery of the Holy Mother of God in Hvosno, within a legally established Special Protective Zone, without the knowledge or consent of the SOC—an explicit violation of the Law on Special Protective Zones.

During the ceremony, Roman Catholic priest Fran Kolaj from Kosovo delivered a speech containing overt nationalist messages and inflammatory language inciting interethnic and interreligious hatred, with the apparent intent to misrepresent historically documented facts and to appropriate the heritage of the SOC, the Diocese added in its statement, calling for protection.