By the end of 2021, Bachkovo Monastery will launch an exhibition of ancient icons and liturgical items that have never been shown before. They will be on display in a renovated exhibition hall in the monastery’s museum, which will be unveiled at a major church feast. According to Bishop Zion, Abbott of the Bachkovo Monastery, the old icons date back to the 15th century. The exposition will also present an ancient marble iconostasis from the old temple dating back to the 19th century. Visitors will be also able to see a cross, donated by Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus, an ancient throne, several old icons, etc. Finely carved wood crosses, typical of the monastic art that occurred in Mount Athos in the 6th-7th century AD, are also on display in the museum, which was established back in the 1930’s.A gold plated silver monstrance covered with many semi-precious stones is among the most valuable church items. It resembles the San Marco Basilica in Venice. There are two more ostensories like this one. One of them is kept at the National Museum of History in Sofia and the other one- at the Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt. Liturgical items and chalices are also on display at the museum. One of the chalices was made in the town of Asenovgrad back in 1599.
Written by: Darina Grigorova
English version: Kostadin Atanasov
The fate of the Saints Peter and Paul church in Sofia has had its ups and downs, it has been through all kinds of uncertainties. It is perhaps one of the lesser known churches in the capital city, but it is also the only one named after the apostles –..
"It was in the Bulgarian lands that the disciples of Cyril and Methodius created literary centres that made Bulgaria a second centre of Orthodox civilisation after Byzantium. Here was the foundation and the root from which the pan-Slavic culture drew..
According to Ottoman documents around 500 dervishes once lived around what is today the village of Bivolyane in Momchilgrad municipality, trained at Elmala Baba Teke, a religious centre once famed as the biggest Dervish centre in this part of the..
+359 2 9336 661