Jelena Anžujska

A French flower in the Valley of Lilacs

Jelena of Anjou, a French noblewoman from the House of Anjou (a relative of King Charles I of Naples), came to Serbia as the wife of King Uroš I. Her arrival refined the Serbian court with European culture and manners. Legend has it that King Uroš, out of love for her, planted lilacs along the valley of the Ibar so that the landscape would remind her of her native Provence.

She was a woman of exceptional education and strong character. She was the first in Serbia to found a school for girls at her court in Brnjaci, where she gathered poor girls, taught them literacy, embroidery and good manners, and then married them off with a dowry that she herself provided.

A union of East and West

Although a Catholic by birth, Jelena respected Orthodoxy and became a great Serbian saint. Towards the end of her life she took monastic vows as the nun Jelisaveta. Her endowment, Gradac Monastery, is a unique example in Serbian architecture – an Orthodox church with Gothic elements, reflecting her dual heritage.