The name of the present-day Ladja neighborhood of Ivailovgrad can be found in eparchial lists from the 9th to the middle of the 10th Century. This is the earliest written source about this outlying district, whose name at that time was Litica, which meant a headquarters for a bishop.
Continue reading St. Konstantin and Elena Church in the town of Ivailovgrad, Ivailovgrad municipality
The church was built in 1820. It is metropolitan and represents three-shipped pseudo basilica with closed narthex and polygonal septahedral apsis. The construction is from crumbled stones.
The interior is divided by columns with complex “ajure” capitals imitating marble and subtly bending arches. “Ajure” has a French origin, meaning “at light”. Ajure is a technique used in the woodcarving, goldsmithing and other arts, in which there are openings among the decorative elements. In this way, the background is eliminated, the figures stand out much more brightly with the illusion of three-dimensionality, and the light passes freely and results in various effects.
The painting in the temple emphasizes the elements of architecture – the arch and the vault with decorative motifs and plaster ornamentation also contain vegetation motifs and wreaths. The icons from the tsar line of the iconostasis were donated by different craftsmen and citizens from the town and neighborhood. The artist Nikola Konstantinov, known as Nikola the Icon-painter (or Nikola the Edirne-man) painted them in 1873-1876. The other artist signed with the family name Zissiuh.
The temple was built in 1805. It represents a three-shipped pseudo basilica built of crumbled stones and processed quadres.
The artistic focus in the church is woodcarving. Here it has transformed into the highest form of the decorative art (in plastic) as synthesis of all beliefs, esthetic comprehensions and traditions. The iconostasis, the bishop’s throne, the pulpit and the iconostases for kissing are covered with “ajure” wood-carving. In this way, the background is eliminated, the figures stand out much more brightly with the illusion of three-dimensionality, the light passes freely and results in various effects.
Continue reading St. God’s Transfiguration Church in the town of Ivailovgrad, Ivailovgrad municipality
The church, built in 1843, is famous because there Captain Petko Voivoda had barricaded. The church is a typical three-shipped pseudo basilica. The iconostasis is panel, polychrome with tsar and festive register. The icons, 10 tsars and 27 festive, were painted during the second half of 19th Century. The most precious part of the church is the small apostolic frieze in the detached chapel, in the southern part of the temple, which dates back to the 17th -18th Century.
Continue reading St. Pantheleimon Church in the village of Pelevun, Ivailovgrad municipality
The village of Pokrovan existed and preserved its name through the early years of the Ottoman reign. The national struggles for an independent church in the region during the second half of 19th Century aimed to abolish the Greek spiritual influence. In 1860, the local people rejected the spiritual power of the Greek Church and accepted the Uniat with the belief that it was the only way to preserve their language and nationality. The village inhabitants called themselves Bulgarian-Uniates, or Catholics from the Orthodox observance.
The residents of the village built a new church, St Vasilii Veliki, during 1867-1868, which was inaugurated by Bishop Rafael Popov. His brother Sofronii became the church’s first priest. The whole population of Pokrovan turned from the Patriarchate to the bosom of the Catholic Church during the period 1879-1885, when priest of the church was Father Petar Markov.
The population of the village of Pokrovan consisted of Bulgarians and Turks up to 1912. During the Balkan War, the Turkish population of Pokrovan refused to emigrate and their Bulgarian neighbours protected them. During the re-occupation of Ivailovgrad municipality in 1913, the Bulgarians decided to flee but their Turkish fellow men convinced them to stay and protected them from the infrequent Ottoman troops. After the war, when it became clear that the village of Pokrovan would stay within the Bulgarian borders, the local Turks withdrew with the retreating Ottoman army. Towards the end of the war, a Greek-Ottoman autonomist party located in Pokrovan gathered all the men from the village in the school and, after slaughtering them, burned their bodies. The whole village, the church and the school also burned. After the war, the Bulgarians inhabited the former Turkish neighbourhood. The old village had seven Bulgarian and one Turkish neighbourhood.
The present Virgin Mary Church was built in 1924 on the place of the old one and was sanctified on May 6, 1939. The church is a three-shipped pseudo basilica with construction of bricks and stone masonry. The temple’s interior is not dissimilar from the one in the Orthodox churches.
The iconostasis is made of planks, with 5 tsars and 12 celebration icons. The icons were brought from the Edirne suburb Kirshaneto and date from 1861–1863. The masters and icon-painters are unknown. The sculpture of St. Bernadette recalls the Uniat style of the church.
Local craftsmen from the surrounding villages built the temple in 1838. The chief craftsman was named Atanasii.
The church is a typical representative of Revival architecture - three-shipped pseudo basilica, with a polygonal profiled apsis, a high middle ship and two lower side-ships with wooden stretchers. The whole church is built from polished stone blocks. The entrances and the windows of the church are surrounded with stone frames. The roof is semi-sloped exasperated from west and east.
The facade is characterized by rich stone, plaster art. The plaster art ornaments decorate even the stone wall in the yard, where the name of the chief craftsman is written in an encrusted, stylized, two-headed eagle with a cross and vegetation details. A “Blossoming Cross” and a stylized “Tree of Life” are formed in a stone block niche. The most interesting element from the plaster art decoration is the seven-headed beast-dragon. Usually the dragon is portrayed pictorially in scenes of the Apocalypse, but in St Atanasii Church the stone bas-relief features only the dragon without the fiery river and the sunny woman, the saint, seen in the frescos. The details are economized and the chief craftsman emphasized only the beast. It is considered that the symbolic role of the dragon is to preserve the church from evil forces.
Continue reading St. Atanasii Church, in the village of Belopoliane, Ivailovgrad Municipality
