according to tradition, to commemorate the event, saint sava founded the monastery in 1220, and dedicated it to the saint archangels gabriel and michael. turkish traveller evliya çelebi, who visited the region in the 17th century, wrote that the monastery was founded by the "serbian king, the owner of belgrade", which would be king stefan dragutin, who was the only mediaeval serbian king who ruled belgrade, 1284-1316. some theories claim that the monastery was built on the ruins of the franciscan monastery from 1421. none of these theories can be confirmed in historical documents.