Get to know the smallest church in Serbia: There are fascinating legends about it

In the quiet hamlet of Peta, in western Serbia, nestled among pine trees, stands a wooden Serbian Orthodox church dedicated to Theotokos (Presveta Bogorodica, Mother of God). Occupying an area of only 12 square meters, this is not only physically the smallest place of worship in our country, but also the guardian of incredible traditions that have defied centuries.

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While today's temples aspire to heights and spaciousness, the church in Peta draws its strength from humility. It is so small that no one can pass through its low doors with their heads held high - every believer has to bend down, which, as the locals say, is the shrine itself teaching them humility and respect, right from the threshold.

Surrounded by an old wooden fence and a dense forest, the church seems to be independent of time. However, its past is anything but serene.

Official data suggest that it was built around 1740 on Mt. Murtenica. Folklore offers two versions of how the church came to be at its current location. According to one story, the Serbs, in defiance of the Turkish oppressors and in order to save it from destruction, carried the church whole, on their shoulders, under cover of the night.

Another, more poetic legend says that the church was transported by a fairy (Serbian: "vila"), and that after that miraculous act, no Turkish occupyier could approach it again, which saved it from ruin.

Even the very name of the village and the church is shrouded in mystery. The most famous folk anecdote describes a Turk who tried to break into the shrine by putting his foot through the door - specifically, his heel (the Serbian word for heel is, "peta").

According to the story, the door did not let him through, he tripped, fell, and died, and the people started saying, "The church killed him - he wanted to go in using his heel."

The second version, on the other hand, tells of an unnamed Serb who found a hiding place from his enemies in the tiny holy structures, armed only with a knife with a curved part called "the heel" - and determined to defend the entrance at all costs.

Today, the church in Peta remains one of the most enigmatic spots on the map of Serbia's holy places, a spot where the scent of pine resin, incense and echoes of the past, all intertwine.

(Telegraf.rs)