Stefan, a son of the Grand Prince of Zeta Vukan Nemanjić (r. 1190-1207), founded the monastery in 1252, possibly on his own lands (appanage).

[3] In July 1944, during World War II, a third session of the Yugoslav land assembly was held at the monastery, in which Montenegrin communists demanded that "the separate mention of the Bay of Kotor be excluded" (resulting in its incorporation into PR Montenegro).

[4] The main sanctuary (katholikon) is a big one-nave church built in the Rascian style,[5] which developed from 1170 as first of three major artistic and architectural schools of medieval Serbia (also visible in Studenica, Mileševa, Sopoćani, Arilje and, as regards Montenegro, in Berane and Bijelo Polje).

They show conservative traits, with late-Comnenian figure schemes and architectural motifs of heavy and solid blocks, similar in manner to the frescoes of Sopoćani (Serbia).

Among them it is worth mentioning two notable Last Judgement depictions, a Paradise and the Bosom of Abraham and Satan on the Two-Headed Beast, both dated 1577-8.