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Man builds church single-handed

BELGRADE: Dragisa Radivojevic took 17 years to build a church single-handed in his village southeast of Belgrade, the daily Politika Ekspres reported on Saturday.

Radivojevic drew up the plan, built the walls, did the structural work and decorated the interior of the church in Grcac near Smederevska Palanka, 70 kilometres from the capital, the newspaper said.

The work would have taken less time had Radivojevic not encountered some administrative problems with the then-communist regime, which did not look kindly on his enterprise.

But Radivojevic said: "I had faith from the very first day. Without that faith I could never have done all that.

Politika Ekspres published a picture of the robust sexagenarian with a big white moustache alongside a photo of the pretty little Orthodox church with its traditional domes. AFP