Eparchy of Gornji Karlovac

The Eparchy of Gornji Karlovac (Serbian Cyrillic: Епархија горњокарловачка, Croatian: Eparhija gornjokarlovačka; "Eparchy of Upper Karlovac") is an eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church seated in the city of Karlovac, Croatia. It covers the area of Banovina, Kordun, Lika, Krbava, Gorski Kotar, as well as northern Croatia and Istria.

The important Orthodox Christian monasteries in the region are Gomirje near Ogulin and Komogovina Monastery between Glina and Kostajnica.

History

The Serbian Orthodox Ličko-Krbavska and Zrinopoljska Eparchy was established in 1695 by the Metropolitan Atanasije Ljubojević and certified by Emperor Joseph I in 1707. This eparchy (from the 19th century known as the Eparchy of Upper Karlovac) was the ecclesiastical centre of the Serbian Orthodox Church in this region, populated by Serbs, the community known at the time as "Rascians".

This eparchy was under jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia, directly under the restored Serbian Patriarch in Peć and after 1766 under the new Serbian Metropolitanate of Karlovci, comprising Lika, Banija and Kordun.

In 1993 the old Cathedral Church of Saint Nicholas and the eparchy's diocesan residence were destroyed by Croatians during the Croatian war of Independence.