Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia

Who was Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia?

Stephen Dušan, commonly known as Stephen Dušan and Dušan the Mighty, was the King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks until his death on 20 December 1355. Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of his era's most powerful monarchs. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire in Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, finished the construction of the Visoki Dečani-monastery, and founded the Saint Archangels Monastery, among others. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial, economical, political and cultural peak.

His death in 1355 is seen as the end of resistance toward the advancing Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent fall of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the region. His crown is kept at the Cetinje Monastery, in Montenegro.