South-east of Daruvar, in the canyon of the Pakra River, after which the town got its name, is the Pakra Monastery, once called New Desert, and according to some Russian documents Znamenski (miracle). It is located seven kilometers upstream from Sirač towards Purnica, 12 km from Daruvar. It is surrounded by beautiful nature, and belongs to the hilly-mountainous part (Papuk mountain), called Zabrđe.
Folk tradition attributes the founding of this monastery to the outlaw Stamenko Njigomir, who repented of his sins and decided to lead a hermit life by building huts for himself and his brethren, from which the monastery later developed. The church, which is basically a one-nave building with a semicircular altar apse, was built of carving stone, tufa and brick, and on the west side is a 36-meter high bell tower through which the temple is entered. The treasury of the Pakra monastery was once very rich and contained, among other things, a collection of wood-carved and filigree crosses, a collection of manuscript books, as well as 13 icons of Serbian saints from the end of the 18th century, which are now in the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum.
