EARLY BYZANTINE PERIOD
ARCHITECTURE

Being a great church builder and reformer, Justinian surely built or reconstructed certain number of temples in Niš and its surroundings. The impressive three-aisled basilica in Ćurlina might just be added to his merits. It is more certain that he restored the early-Byzantine fortification in the locality of Gradište in the Miljkovac village district.

Gradište in the district of the village Miljkovac, the apsidal part of the church

It is situated on a high plateau on the left bank of the Toponička Reka River, opposite of the medieval fortress Železnik, on a strategically important spot from which the passage from Morava to Svrljig was controlled. Inside the stated ramparts of the fortification, one can observe a semicircular apsis of a church, in the interior of which there is a sloping bulge cut into stone for the bishops' seats - a synthronos. There used to be a marble sanctuary partition in front of it, as witnessed by the discovered fragments of parapet slabs. Decrepit traces of colors on a piece of fresco mortar confirm that the church was frescoed.

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