| St. George′s Church (Serbian Cyrillic: Црква Св. Ђорђа) knows also as Oplenac Church and Oplenac Mausoleum, is the Mausoleum of the Serbian and Yugoslav Royal House of Karađorđević located on top of the Hill Oplenac in city Topola, Serbia. The Foundation in Oplenac is named after King Peter I of Yugoslavia.The church is a five-domed structure. The interior length of the temple is 30 metres (98 ft), and the height of the arch is 27 metres (89 ft). The width of each narthex is 9 metres (29 ft), and so is the span of the central dome. All four façades were made from white marble, which comes from the Venčac Mountain. The main façade, the most decorative one, is the western one. The portal’s semicircle hosts a mosaic icon of St. George, to whom the church is dedicated. Made in Venice according to the plan of the known Serbian artist, Paja Jovanović, on the basis of a golden mosaic, this icon symbolizes the victory of the Serbian people over its enemies. Above the portal, in a circle, the old Karađorđević Family Coat of Arms has been sculpted, on whose sides two typical men from Šumadija region are shown, holding the flags. The rest of it is mostly identical to the Coat of Arms of Serbia. The floor of the church was made in Munich, out of polished marble, in various colours. Lifted on a small podium, the throne for the King and Queen is made of polished green marble, its back is decorated with golden mosaic and mother-of-pearl, in the middle is the two-headed eagle. The arm-rest is made of marble from Dečani, while the entire seat rests on sculpted lions. The huge chandelier, 9 metres in diameter, is underneath the main dome, hanging in 8 places, above the pendent. It has been molten out of massive bronze, and weighs 1500 kilograms (3300 lb). In the chandelier is a Crown set upside-down (symbolising the lost Serbian Empire in Kosovo battle in 1389). |