St. Anna monastery

The Monastery of the Dormition of St Anne stands near Donja Vrijeska, northeast of Daruvar, at roughly 160 metres above sea level. Nobleman Benedikt Nelipić founded the church and monastery in 1412 and granted them, with surrounding land, to the Pauline order. The Paulines left after the Ottoman incursion of 1542; monks from Pakra later resettled the complex in the eighteenth century. The single-nave church is reinforced by buttresses, with a three-sided sanctuary apse outside and a semicircular one within; its iconostasis dates from 1906. It is a rewarding stop for visitors interested in Gothic architecture and the site’s layered Catholic and Orthodox history.