ABSTRACT
The successful reign of Stefan the First-Crowned, marked by major achievements and enduring legacies, is not the subject of this chapter. The perseverance of the cult even in the period of Ottoman rule is evidenced by a piece of information in the Ruvarac Genealogy, which reports that the "intact" relics of the Holy King Stefan the First-Crowned were kept at Sopo-cani. In other words, after several centuries, Studenica had regained its sacral aura and special place in the sacral topography of Serbian lands. The hierotopic model applied in the people research has proved itself remarkably useful in explaining the emergence of the cult of Stefan the First-Crowned and its diverse manifestations in culture, art, ideology and other similar forms. Namely, the shrines where the relics of Stefan the First-Crowned spent a shorter or longer period of time, as well as the routes of their translations, unmistakably outline the sacral topography of the Serbian lands in time frame spanning seven centuries.
