The first coronation churches of medieval Serbia

The medieval ceremony of coronation as a rule took place in the most important church of a realm. The sites of the coronation of Serbian rulers before the establishment of the Zica monastery church as the coronation church of Serbian kings in the first half of the thirteenth century have not been reliably identified so far. Based on the surviving medieval sources and the archaeological record, this paper provides background information about the titles of Serbian rulers prior to the creation of the Nemanjic state, and proposes that Stefan, son of the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty, was crowned king (1217) in the church of St Peter in Ras.