The monastery was founded by the Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan (reigned 1331–1355) between 1343 and 1352 on the site of an earlier church, part of the Višegrad fortress complex.

[citation needed] The monastery complex is built in the smaller plateau in the Prizrenska Bistrica canyon, approximately 2.5 km southeast of Prizren.

Later, Dušan gave three villages to a bishop of Prizren in return from the fortress of Višegrad,[4] which was subsequently submitted to a monastery, connecting them into a whole with a defensive wall.

The Monastery was the pious endowment of Emperor Dušan, built at the site of an older church dedicated to the Holy Archangels, that had been known for its miraculous powers.

[5][6] Metropolitan Jacob (Jakov Serski) was responsible for the construction of the monastery,[5] which began planning in 1343, according to Dušan's St. Peter of Koriša-charter dated 19 May the same year.

[7] After Dušan's recovery from a serious illness, he decided to raise the Monastery on this site, as a place of healing and in gratitude to Christ and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.

[8] It is believed that the construction of the monastery church, supporting facilities and protective walls ended in 1352, and at the time of its establishment, it housed some 200 monks and the Metropolitan.

[5] In the founding charter, Dushan gave to the monastery tax farming rights over 93 villages, 7 churches and their congregation and property (fertile land, vineyards, and oil-lamps), an iron mine in Toplica, 467 Vlach households (shepherds), 8 Albanian katund, and a number of craftsmen, including goldsmiths.

[7] The Prizren customs and market's revenue belonged to the Monastery, and cooking oil arrived from Bar and fish from Skadar and Plav, as well as salt, silk, wine, honey and wax.

[2] After his death on 20 December 1355, Emperor Dušan was buried in a separate tomb, located in the southwestern part of the nave of the Church of the Saint Archangels, which is a unique solution of the Serbian architecture.

At the beginning of the 17th century, a systematic demolition was conducted on the monastery churches as to obtain construction material for Sofi Sinan Pasha's Mosque in the center of Prizren, which was finished in 1615,[12] and is part of Serbia's Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance-heritage list, added in 1990.

According to her, he sparkled so great, that man could by dark night thirty kilometers to go to North but, to the Švanjski Bridge, which is located at old fort, as in the middle of broad daylight.

[5] According to one travel writers, the service began during the night and so that only Light provided the burning candles, while the people and clergy in the prayer welcomed the dawn.

[2] Shortly before the 1926 excavations, the first Hydroelectric power plant in Kosovo and Metohija, Prizrenka, was built next to the monastery complex, completed in 1928, which was active until the 1960s, while today it is under state protection as a monument.

Only a few days after German KFOR units had been dispatched, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army burned and looted the restored residence, and one of the monks, Father Chariton, was kidnapped in Prizren, in mid-June 1999.

The entire residence was burned and destroyed, including the bell tower and the woodcut workshop, a panel was badly damaged and the tomb of Emperor Dušan was broken and desecrated.

[6] On 26 July 2005, the celebration of the Monastery Slava (patron saint protector) and the 650th anniversary of the Emperor's death was organized with the protection of KFOR forces.