The name and provenance of the architect of Sopocani are not known. The solutions of some structural problems and certain elements in the execution of details suggest that he came from the western part of the country, most likely from the coast or its immediate hinterland. A comparison of the forms of the Sopocani church with those of similar edifices helps us to establish with greater certainty the possible models of the architect. The overall design of the church was dictated by the founder. He must also have determined the size of the church and its general appearance. It was not without diffi­culty that the architect of Sopocani met the founder's require­ments. The incorporation of the desing and the greater part of the structure into new forms created a number of problems, which the architect did not always solve particularly skilfully The architecture of the church was not based simply on the adoption of elements from earlier buildings. The factors that contributed to its design were more complex: the imitatino of existing models, the founder's taste, the general trends in architectural thought, and. particularly, the architect's pre­vious training and experience. By combining tradition, formed under the influence of Byzantine architecture, and his own experience which he brought from the western regions, the master-builder of Sopocani created new forms of the Raska-style of architecture which were adopted in lather churches raised by the Nemanjic dynasty. The outer narthex, with the bell-tower incorporated in the facade, was added to the west wall of the church. Its upper parts are destroyed, but the sections that have survived in­dicate its original appearance. It was in the form of an open porch, supported on columns and piers on the outside and two columns on the middle. They were all connected by round arches, forming, on the northern and southern sides, three sections roofed with a kind of cross-vault. These were covered with the same single lean to roofs which continued over the aisles of the church. The central part of the narthex extends the entire width of the nave. It was supported by two large pointed arches and the two lateral walls. The three bays be­tween the arches were covered with vaulting. These vaults, arches and walls formed the transverse central area of the outer narthex. All the arches had wooden tie-beams set in the imposts. There is not sufficient evidence to deduce the appearance of the upper section of this part of the narthex and of the form of the roof above it. Some details which have been preserved on the bell-tower seem to indicate that th roof of the central part of the narthex followed the form of the vaults, i.e. that it was set transversely in relation to the church. It is neverthe­less not clear whether it was a lean-to roof, sloping towards the bell-towers, or, as seems more likely, a pitched roof.

The three-storey bell-tower was built at the same time as the narthex. Its ground floor was open, and the entire struc­ture rested on four piers, connected by arches. The storeys were separated by wooden floors and each had four elongated windows. Along the corners of the outside walls adove the ground floor ran shallow strip pilasters terminating below the roof in a row of small arcades on consoles. There were also small arcades on the western, facade of the outer narthex, and, presumably, on the gables.

The western range at Sopocani is not similar to other build­ings of this type. The position of the bell-tower in front of the narthex and Romanesque features of its facade are in line with 13th-century tradition. However, the narthex in the form of an open porch, the transverse position of its central area in relation to the church, and the use of wooden tie-beams in the imposts of the arches are in the spirit of Byzantine architecture of the kind fostered in Serbia from King Milutin's time. The outer narthex and the bell-tower at Sopocani thus reflect the transition from 13th-century architecture to that characteristic of the first decades of the 14th century.

The bell-tower was altered several times. Probably immediately after its completion, when it became apparent that the four piers could not support the weight of the high and massive walls, the two lateral arched openings on the ground floor were walled up. The openings between the other two arches were also partly walled up before the painting of the frescoes in the fourth or fifth decade of the 14th century. The remo-delling undertaken at the end of the 16th and the begiinning of the 17th century was the most extensive. The large openings on the first two storeys of the tower were walled up, and only wery narrow windows left. A chapel with an altar niche was formed on the second storey, and a low quadrangular opening was pierced in the east wall of the first storey. The way the stone was carved and built into the frame of that opening indicates that these alterations took place at the end of the 16th century. The church and the outer narthex were com­pletely re-roofed at that time. The roofs, gently sloping, were made of lead sheets placed over a base of rubble. It was then that a lean-to roof was built above the middle part of the outer narthex.

The Church of the Holy Trinity was the central and most important part of the Monastery of Sopocani. The buildings in which the monks lived are centemporary with it. The mo­nastery was raised on a terrace cut into a slope and surrounded by a strong wall. Like all Serbian monasteries, it was roughly circular in plan. The refectory, living-quarters and store-rooms were built along the inner side of the surrounding wall. The monastery was entered from two opposite sides. The main gate was on the south-western side, and the other, which probably communicated with the farm buildings of the mo­nastery, was on the north-eastern side.

During its long and eventful history, the monastery was de­molished and rebuilt several times, but its core retained the original form. During the successive rebuildings, use was made of the greater part of the enclosed area and, whenever pos­sible, of the existing walls of ruined buildings. The functional lay-out remained largely unchanged. The greatest body of evidence has been preserved from the last phase of building, while the earlier ones cannot always be reconstructed.

The monastery refectory lay on the western side, opposite the entrance to the church. It was the most important and im­posing building in the monastery complex after the church. It was rectangular in shape, wath a free apse on the northern side. Along the longitudinal exis, it had a row of wooden posts which carried the upper structure. The posts stood on stone bases set into the floor of sandstone slabs. The internal wall surfaces were painted. The refectory probably did not have an upper storey, but the ground floor must have been high. No window openings or remains of windows have been pres­erved. The refectory was subsequently remodelled. Probably in the 15th century, it was divided into two parts of unequal size, and the smaller room was converted into an extension of the kitchen and provided with a large hearth-bakery. It was then that another entrance to the refectory, leading from the porch of the adjacent residential building was opened near the apse.

Remains of five premises have been discovered between the refectory and the main gate to the monastery. The lay-out architectural details and objects found in them show that they were the kitchen and pantries. The first two rooms were used for the preparation of food and were directly connected with the refectory. The first, which probably belonged to the earliest period, had a triangular hearth in one corner. The second con­tained a square base for a large stove and a low masonry bench which ran along the surrounding wall. Parts of a high chimney — a column, capitals and serrated segments of two shallow arches — were found during the excavations. The he­arth is similar in form to that in the Monastery of Crna Reka, and the technique of carving and fitting together denticulated segments was known to the stone-masons who took part in the building of churches in the neighbourhood of Sopocani in the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century.

Lead piping carried water through the wall between the second and third room to the facade wall, where there was a fountain. A bench, built of regular sandstone slabs, ran along the wall from the fountain to the refectory. The building had a porch, and a masonry staircase led to the upper floor, which probably contained monks cells. The remains that have been preserved date mostly from the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. The original main gate of the monastery had a frame of carved sandstone. During later rebuilding, probably in the 15th centu­ry, an entrance chamber with another gate was added to it. A tower was also erected next to the entrance. The other en­trance to the monastery, on the north-eastern side, was also remodelled in the 15th century, but was subsequently walled up and used as living-quarters. The residential buildings lay on the north and south sides of the monastery courtyard. The rooms on the ground floor were used for storage, while the cells were on the upper floor.

The original form of the buildings on the north side cannot be established with precision. The building added to the apse of the refectory is in the best state of preservation. Its method of construction and the archaeological finds associated with it suggest that it was built at the beginning of the 15th cen­tury. It had four rooms and a wide portico, supported on wo­oden posts with stone bases, along the entire lenght of the fa­cade. The portico had doors to the rooms and the refectory, and a masonry staircase led to the upper floor. During a later reconstruction, probably towards the end of the 16th century, a part of the portico was converted into rooms, and stoves were built in them. Two lavatories were built next to this building against the outer side of the surrounding wall. One was entered from the ground floor, and the other from the upper storey. They were linked at the bottom to a sewage canal.

A building with three rooms in a row, which were probably used as cellars, originally stood against the southern part of the surrounding wall. It had a porch and a masonry bench running along the facade wall facing the courtyard. A semi--circular cesspool for the lavatory located on the upper floor was dug outside the surrounding wall. Remains of another house, built probably at the end of the 16th century, were dis­covered extending on from this building. It differed from all others in the monastery in its design and construction: it had seven rooms and a corridor in the middle, and the parts above the base layer were timber-framed, the spaces between the timber being filled with unbaked brick. The rooms were small and used for habitation. The three rooms against the surroun­ding wall had floors of hexagonal or rectangular brick and were heated with stoves or hearths.

The majority of the monastery buildings had doorways and window frames of carved sandstone. In the last building period, the decoration of fireplace and some other details were also of the same stone.

Tne monastery retained the same functional layout throughout its existence. Some parts of the buildings were used in every epoch of its history. The remains existing today date from varoius periods and give us an imperfect insight into the last building phase, that of the 17th century.