It is located in the village of Banjani, on Mount Skopska Crna Gora. In 1307/8 King Milutin built the monastery on the foundations of an earlier church. In 1308 it was also mentioned in the chrysobull of Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologue, as a donation of the peer to Hilandar. Almost simultaneously a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built on the southern side of the church. Vladimir Mosin states that the monastery was probably built in the XI century, when Emperor Vasilius /1025/ conquered Macedonia, and when other churches and monasteries within the region were built. During the Serbian - Bulgarian -Byzantine wars in the late XII and the early XIII centuries, the majority of those monasteries, including ours, were destroyed. The church was reconstructed several times: in 1404, 1584, and in 1692, when the chapel was torn down. Under its administration was the monastery of Kozle located at the mouth of the Pcinja and Vardar rivers. During the reconstruction, King Milutin appended to it three churches: St. Bogorodica (Holy Mother), St. Jovan Krstitel (John the Baptist), and St. Nikola. Around 1308 he also appended to the monastery the following villages: Dobri Dol, the region of Gostivar; Kuckovo, the region of Skopje; Neraste, the region of Tetovo; Radjevo in the Polog valley; Radiovce, the region of Tetovo; Blace, the region of Skopje; Glumovo, the region of Skopje. There is an inscription in the monastery with a mention of a Mojsej Decanec (Moses of Decani), and in 1813 there is a mention of a monk Makarie Decanski. The best outline of the fundamental historic and artistic features of the monastery is rendered by P. Miljkovic - Pepek.
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