International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Ljiljana Mandić
National Museum Užice, Serbia 
[e-mail]
Miloje Mandić
Tombstone in the Churchyard of Bela Crkva (the White Church) in Karan
In the fertile valley of Lužnica, in the village of Karan near Užice, there is a famous medieval 
church from the mid-fourteenth century, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The 
founder of the church was the mayor Brajan, a rich landowner, a contemporary of King Dušan. Por-
traits of the king and the nobility with their families, along with other important nobility and clergy 
are represented by the frescoes in the church. The frescoes with figures of holy warriors, painted 
in the spirit of the mid-fourteenth century painting, stand out among others. The place where the 
church was built has the tradition of 
sacer loci
- probably the existence of an ancient temple with the 
necropolis whose age-old monuments and multi layer medieval necropolis have been preserved.
In 1998, during excavations in the churchyard conducted by archaeologists from the Užice 
National Museum, in the probe I, west of the church, a preserved gravestone with Cyrillic inscription 
BRAIŠINA 
(БРАИШИНА)
was discovered. Braišin was a name that was often encountered in 
toponymy, along with Brajan, Brajko and Brajšina.
The stone is well processed as well as the inscription field with seven regular rows of text 
with the approximate size letters that are clear and tight. The letters 
Ш
and 
И
are wide, while the 
letters 
T
and 
M
are lower than the others. The letters 
Б
and 
Г
have a triangle in the upper end of the 
horizontal line, 
Р
and 
У 
were inscripted in single strokes with triangular loops and sickle arches. 
The letter