The BACHKOVO Monastery "Uspenie Bogorodichno"

H I S T O R Y Erected in a magnificent locality along the reaches of the Assenitsa River (29 km south of Plovdiv), the Bachkovo monastery ranks second after the Rila Monastery both with regard to size, and to architectural, artistic and literary signifi- cance. It was founded by the Georgian Grigorii Bakuriani in 1083. Almost immediately after its foundation, the monastery turned into a wealthy landowner, its properties stretching as far as Salonika. In 1344 Tsar Ivan Alexander established his rule over the Rodo- pite, populated the monastery with Bulgarians, and generously donated to it. His full-length portrait stands next to the figures of Bakuriani and his brother Apassii in the narthex, of the upper floor of the ossuary - the only building remained from the mediaeval monastery after its destruction in 16th c. standing alone in the woods today, apart from the new "complex". Spared during the first wave of enslavement Bachkovo monastery became the pri- son of the last Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymius, who was exiled here, where he continued his literary work.

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A R C H I T E C T U R E The monastery's biography is inevitably reflected in the architectural face of the ossuary. Its general idea is foreign to old Bulgarian art, and is clearly influenced by Syrian and Armenian-Georgian building. At the same time, the construction of parallel rows of stones and bricks was unknown there, and that is the construc- tion method of Pliska and Preslav - the capitals of the First and the Second Bulgarian Kingdom.

A R T The preserved murals on two floors are a valuable document of an age that has left us with fairly few artistic testimonies. Painted during 11th and 12th centuries, the murals are result of a monumental- spiritualistic style of the time when the theocratic system of the Byzantine rule was most powerful: stern figures, foreign to all worldly things, forceful and severe drawing, enamel gleaming colour.

An  interesting proof of  the cultural level of the monastic brotherhood are the mu- rals in the refectory displaying the upright figures of theancient philosophers Aristo- teles, Aristophanes, Diogenes, David, Sophocles and Anaximenes. Bachkovo Monastery  was one of the most signifi- cant spiritual and literary centres of the National Revival period. In 1837 the deci- sion was taken for a new church to be built: St. Nikola.

Its murals, completed in 1840 were the first documented work of the great National revival artist Zahari Zograph. The murals, the old icons from different periods, the manu- scripts and incunabula with artistic facings, as well as the many objects linked with church crafts, turned Bachkovo Monastery into one of the richest galleries of old Bulgarian art.

BULGARIAN MONASTERIES

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