The Extended Mind and Hand of the School
The first student dormitory in our country was founded by Saint Sava at Hilandar in 1199, where he educated 200 young monks in a boarding school, who later became the foundation of the educational system of medieval Serbia. Boarding schools were founded throughout Serbia – in Studenica, Žiča, Peć, Mileševa, Ravanica, Visoki Dečani, Ljubostinja, Resava, Hopovo, and Đakovica. It is less known that at the court in Brnjak, Serbian Queen Helen of Anjou opened a boarding school for girls at the end of the 13th century, whom she fed, enlightened, and educated. Princess Milica Hrebeljanović also founded a boarding school at the Ljubostinja monastery where nuns and female war orphans were educated and taught female crafts, with a special focus on gold embroidery for decorating ceremonial clothing.
