Following World War II, more than 10,000 exiled Serbs fled Yugoslavia for the UK. In need of somewhere to call their own, the Lazarica was founded in 1968. Creating the first purpose-built Serbian church in the UK. And you can find it right here in Birmingham at the iconic ‘model village’ of Bournville.
Serbians have had a connection with Bournville ever since Dame Elizabeth Cadbury sponsored thirteen refugee children after World War I. But the Lazarica, aka Saint Prince Lazar Serbian Orthodox Church, has only deepened the factory in a garden’s position as the centre of the Serb community in the UK.
Bournville
Before, the Lazarica was just a wooded area in the heart of leafy Bournville. Owned by the Cadbury family, they sold it to the Serbian Orthodox community led by Father Milenko Zebić, and in 1965, the first foundation stone was laid. Three years later, the Lazarica Church was consecrated in front of 6,000 people.
Saint Prince Lazar Serbian Orthodox Church
Built in a traditional Serbian 14th-century Byzantine-Moravian style by architect Dragomir Tadić, with input from the Bournville Village Trust, it is a replica of a church in Serbia. Dedicated to the Holy Prince Lazar of Kosovo, there are also relics lying in the church foundations.
Al secco paintings cover the walls and ceiling of the church, painted by the artist Dušan Mihajlović, and are copies of medieval frescoes found in the oldest Serbian monasteries located in Kosovo, including the Patriarchate of Peć (many of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list).
Also, the marble floor and walls, the sandstone columns, the walnut furniture overlaid with beaten copper, and the candelabra were all brought from Yugoslavia. But it’s a staggeringly beautiful and unique church wherever you look—from Christ on the dome to warrior saints at the bottom of the walls.
The Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Prince Lazar is open for regular services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. To learn more about the Lazarica church, head here.
