Ratac Abbey

Ratac or Ratac Abbey was a fortified monastic complex on the coast of the peninsula between Bar and Sutomore in modern-day Montenegro. Ratac Abbey was under jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bar, though relations between Ratac abbots and Bar archbishops were not always good. Based on the charters issued to Ratac by the rulers of Serbia of Nemanjić dynasty, Ratac had a hospital that provided treatment to people who lived in poverty. In the middle of the 15th century people infected with leprosy were treated in this hospital. The earliest source that mentions Ratas is from 1247, though it probably existed much earlier. On 15 March 1306 Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia issued a charter to Ratac in which he appointed his son Stephen as his future successor. Building of the new church within the already existing monastic complex began in 1347. At the beginning of the First Scutari War Ratac was captured by Venetians.