BOYANA CHURCH - SOFIA
BOYANA CHURCH - SOFIA
The Boyana Church is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church situated on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in the Boyana quarter.
The east wing of the two-storey church was originally constructed in the late 10th or early 11th century, then the central wing was added in the 13th century under the Second Bulgarian Empire, the whole building being finished with a further expansion to the west in the middle of the 19th century.
The church owes its world fame mainly to its frescoes from 1259. They form a second layer over the paintings from earlier centuries and represent one of the most complete and well-preserved monuments of Eastern European mediaeval art.
A total of 89 scenes with 240 human images are depicted on the walls of the church. The painter is anonymous, but is possibly from the Tarnovo Art School.
18 scenes in the narthex depict the life of Saint Nicholas. The painter here drew certain aspects of contemporary lifestyle. In The Miracle at Sea, the ship and the sailors' hats recall the Venetian fleet.
The portraits of the patrons of the church — Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Desislava, as well as those of Bulgarian Tsar Constantine Tikh and Tsaritsa Irina, are thought to be among the most impressive and lifelike frescoes in the church, and are located on the north wall of the church.
Besides the first layer of 11th-12th century frescoes, of which only fragments are preserved, and the famous second layer of murals from 1259, the church also has a smaller number of later frescoes from the 14th and 16th -17th century, as well as from 1882.
The monument was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. The frescoes were restored and cleaned in 1912-1915 by an Austrian and a Bulgarian specialist, as well in 1934 and 1944. The church was closed for the public in 1977 in order to be conservated and restored and once again opened in 2000.
