Stefan Dušan

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Урош IV Душан), also known as Dušan the Mighty (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Силни; c. 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians from 16 April 1346 until his death in 1355. Dušan is considered one of the greatest medieval Balkan conquerors.

Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the most powerful state in Southeast Europe and one of the most powerful European states.. It was an Eastern Orthodox, multi-ethnic, and multilingual empire that stretched from the Danube in the north to the Gulf of Corinth in the south, with its capital in Skopje. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, completed his father's mausoleum Visoki Dečani Monastery (now a UNESCO site), and founded the monastery of the Holy Archangels, among others. Under his rule, Serbia reached its territorial, political, economic, and cultural peak.

Stefan Dušan worked to forge a coalition with Venice to address the advancing threat of the Ottoman Turks into Europe. However, his efforts were interrupted by his sudden death in December 1355 at his court in Prizren. After his death, the Serbian Empire began to weaken significantly. With the death of Dušan's successor, Emperor Stefan Uroš V, the empire was definitively divided into numerous independent Serbian states, marking what is historically referred to as the Fall of the Serbian Empire. He was originally buried in his foundation near Prizren, but his remains were later relocated to the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade, where they rest to this day.