Ćelije

     Ćelije Monastery is situated on the bank of the River Gradac near the village of Lelić 5 km from Valjevo. According to one legend, the benefactor of the monastery was King Dragutin (1276-1282); however a second legend has it that the monastery was built in the late 14th or early 15th Century in the time of King Stefan Lazarevic. Monks from the monastery joined the First Serbian Uprising (against the Turks) in 1804.

    In 1791 the Turkish military commander of the Valjevo region called General Mahmud Bušatlija burnt ]elije and 13 other monasteries to the ground. Ćelija Monastery was rebuilt in 1793. Because the Monastery was used as a Serbian military hospital during the First Serbian Uprising of 1804 the Turks again burnt the monastery to the ground in 1810. In the following year of 1811 it was again rebuilt . The bell tower was built in 1926 at the north end of the monastery church. 

   The first Iconostas was painted by Petar Nikolajević Moler between the period of 1798 to 1800 however, In 1810 the Iconostas was destroyed by the Turkish Army. In addition to being an artist Moler fought, with the rank of a general, in the First Serbian Uprising. In the churchyard is the grave of Duke Ilija Birčanin, a famous leader, who was executed by the Turks at the Kolubara River in Valjevo in 1804.

  A school was opened at the monastery in 1966 which teaches artists the art of Icon painting and the monastery also publishes many religious works. Ćelije is now inhabited by Nuns. The monastery was also famous because a prominent theologist Archimandrite Justin Popović Ph.D. was its spiritual leader from 1948 to 1979. He is buried in the churchyard. Archimandrite Justin wrote many books on theology and is one of the founders of The Serbian Philosophers Society.