About the special significance of the monastery, besides the old biographical articles, testifies excellent location of the monastery erected at the top of prominent hill, as well as the distinctive architecture of the church of St. George with two towers- which looks like pilars/stupa who later gave the name of the church and monastery - Đurđevi stupovi (pillars).
By writings of Stefan Nemanja’s biographer, his son Stefan, the monastery was founded by Nemanja, while he was imprisoned in a cave, and he vowed to build a monastery dedicated to St. George.
Abbot of St. George had a prominent place in the life of the church, and monastery itself belonged to the royal monasteries in the thirteenth century.
Pillars are made by distinctive style as a unique synthesis of two architectural concept of the Middle Ages, Byzantine architecture in the East and Romanesque architecture in the West. Church of St. George has an important role in the formation of this architecture, known as the Raska school, as a building which starts this creative era in the architecture of medieval Serbia.