Benedictine Monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian

The monastery is located on the Ćokovac hill near Tkon. It was built by Teodorik, the Bishop of Biograd, in 1059 on the foundations of a former Byzantine fort and an early Christian church. The Monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian is currently the only active male Benedictine monastery in Croatia and is considered a monument of the highest category of protection. It is also a centre of Glagolitic script studies. The monastery holds many Glagolitic registers, Glagolitic codices, sermons, rituals, songs, tombstone inscriptions, etc. all written in Glagolitic script. The most valuable codex is Regula sv. Benedikta, written on parchment, and one of the oldest texts written in Glagolitic script in Croatian medieval culture. Additionally, the monastery holds two valuable Glagolitic monuments: Pašmanski brevijar, a church prayer book with prayers, psalms and canticles, and Tkonski zbornik from the 16th century, a collection which contains numerous prose texts, poetry, drama, ecclesiastic and semi-secular texts. The Monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian was built in the Gothic style and its Gothic-style decorations include a painted wooden crucifix with a silhouette of a cross with trefoil extensions.