The Latin church (September 2020) is located on Metoh hill near the village of Gornji Matejevac in the vicinity of Niš. Built in the first half of the 11th century, it is one of the few preserved churches from the Byzantine period. In the people, the church is often called the Latin Church and the “Great Church” and it is also called the Church of the Holy Trinity of Rusalia. Rusalia, one of the three famous cults among the ancient Serbs. By chance, it was dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. The name Latinska represents the memory of Dubrovnik merchants, the Latins, who used it during the 16th century. The church in Matejevac has not been fully explored. It was interesting to researchers back in the 19th century. Mihajlo Valtrović, our first antiquities researcher, reporting to the Serbian Learned Society about this monument says that it “represents a strictly built Byzantine object”.
Built during Byzantine rule in the 11th century. It seems that after the retreat of Byzantium, it was abandoned, not accepted by the Serbs. Archeological research carried out by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments from Nis established that the church was rebuilt in the 15th century. It is believed that the temple was restored by the despot Stefan Lazarević, who dedicated the church to the Virgin Mary. No traces of medieval painting were discovered in the interior of the church, but it is known that it was painted in 1870. One of the painted characters was Miloš Obilić in life size. After the fall of the Despotovina, the church does not appear in Turkish censuses. It was not until the establishment of the Dubrovnik colony in Nis, in the middle of the 16th century, that the church was restored and the people of Dubrovnik used it for their rituals.
A necropolis was created around the church, which is written about by travel writers and there are also reports from Dubrovnik archives that mention prominent merchants and diplomats who died and were buried there. After the departure of the people of Dubrovnik, both the church and the cemetery were abandoned, only the name Latin Church remained among the people. A whole century later, there was not a single church in Nis and its surroundings, because the Turks burned everything down or turned it into mosques, stables or barracks.
It is assumed that this church was then secretly restored and used for some time. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and since it was the largest, the people called it the “Great Church”. When a new church was built in the center of Gornji Matejevac in 1838, the old Our Lady of Rusalia, Latin or Great Church completely lost its importance. Based on the results of the archaeological investigation, the church was renovated in the period from 1968 to 1974 and returned to its original form.
