Ruins of Arača, North Serbia

Arača (Hungarian: Aracs) is a medieval Romanesque church. It was built around 1230 during administration of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was robbed and devastated in 1280 and reconstructed in 1370 as required by the Queen Queen Elizabeth of Slavonia, a member of the Hungarian branch of the Capetian house of Anjou. During the reconstruction a gothic tower was added to the church giving it a slightly mixed architectural style. Later on the church fell into the hands of a series of Serbian despots until it was finally burned to near non-existence by the Ottomans in 1551. After this final act of destruction, the church never recovered, but never disappeared either.