Gomirje Monastery

Gomirje is a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Croatia. It is the westernmost Serb Orthodox monastery, located in the western part of Croatia near the village of Gomirje, near the town of Ogulin. The monastery is thought to have been founded in 1600. The monastery includes the church of Roždenije saint John the Baptist, built in 1719.

Gomirje Monastery was built in the period of the first larger Serb settling in the villages of Gomirje, Vrbovsko and Moravice at the end of 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. In 1600 nobleman Juraj Frankopan, brother of the Vuk II Krsto Frankopan, have granted right of "the eternal procuration" of depopulated village of Gomirje to the 325 Serb refugees from Udbina and Korenica which at the time were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. One monk arrived together with settlers and in the 1600-1602 period settlers have build one small wooden chapel for him to serve religious services which will serve as the corner stone of the future monastery. The first conflict with the members of Frankopan family surfaced in the following years when Frankopan's wanted to turn settlers into serfs while settlers claimed rights of the Grenzer or 'Frontiersmen' of the Croatian Military Frontier. In 1602 settlers' mission asked for protection from the Archduke Ferdinand, and in 1608 they asked once again either for protection or resettlement. In 1615 most of the settlers moved away to the Slavonian Military Frontier with only 40 families remaining in Gomirje. In 1621 Vuk II Krsto Frankopan erected one observation tower beside the monastery to control Ottoman movements in the region. In 1617 Gomirje's remaining settlers complained once again through their emissaries in Graz and the entire conflict was not resolved until the year of 1657 when settlers redeemed rights on land of the Gomirje area and defined its boundaries in return for four years of annual fee of 15,000 Forints. 1657 Agreement granted part of the land to the Gomirje Monastery and it was confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

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