What to see
Memorial complex in Gornja Dobrinja
This complex is located twenty kilometers from Požega in the village Gornja Dobrinja, the native village of Prince Miloš Obrenović. It consists of Miloš’s endowments: the church dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, built in 1822, a brick bell tower, a wooden chardak (old typical house in the Balkans – usually has a fortified ground floor and a wooden upper floor) with a memorial fountain and an impressive bronze monument, the work of sculptor Miroslav Protić, on a spacious plateau with an amphitheater and access stone stairway.
The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was built in 1822 by Prince Miloš Obrenović as an endowment to his father Theodore, on the site where the Church of Kosovo once stood, as the property of the monastery of Nikolje, under Kablar. It is basically a one-nave building with a semicircular apse. It was built from hewn stone from the surrounding area, and the sacral objects and decorations are modest, but made to last a long time and serve their purpose. A silver chalice, a gift from Prince Miloš, some valuable icons and a church yearbook, in which a significant period of Serbian history of that time was forever recorded, have been preserved. It contains all the significant events, as well as the visits of the ruling Obrenović dynasty on several occasions. Next to the church is a large brick belfry.
Chardak with the fountain is a truly valuable monument of folk architecture and was built in 1860, based on the wishes and needs of Prince Miloš Obrenović. The porch replaced a standing and receiving office or house, where he could always receive guests and dignitaries, especially during holidays. It is made of wooden, oak planks, built as a one-story building with a steep pyramidal roof, covered with shingles. In the lower, northern part of the veranda, a wonderful, stone fountain with drinking, spring water was made. The prince dedicated the courtyard, as well as the church, to his father Theodore.
The monumental sculpture of Prince Miloš Obrenović, erected on the occasion of marking 175 years since the Second Serbian Uprising, the work of the academic sculptor Miroslav Protić from Gornja Dobrinja, with an amphitheater and an access staircase, is one of the most beautiful and historically valuable in the area of the entire western Serbia, and its appearance rounds off the artistic whole memorial complex.
