| In the Late Middle Ages, Kastritsi was a typical medieval city with narrow streets and large homes. Thearchaeological remains of the medieval homes, streets, churches, and fortifications of Kastritsi are very well preserved allowing the Bulgarian archaeologists to discover lots of pottery vessels, metal tools, decorations, and over 2,500 coins. If it is researched more thoroughly, conserved, and exhibited,Kastritsi has the potential to show a fully preserved medieval Bulgarian city with a major potential forhistorical and cultural tourism, according to archaeologists. The Kastritsi City and Fortress north of Bulgaria’s Varna is especially well preserved because it is inside the enclosed territory of the Euxinograd Residence of the Bulgarian government, which has been with limited public access since the end of the 19th century, meaning that treasure hunters and looters could not do damage to it, unlike what they have done to thousands of other archaeological and historical sites all over Bulgaria. The Euxinograd Residence was built on lands that the first ruler of Liberated Bulgaria, i.e. the Third Bulgarian Tsardom, Knyaz Alexander I Batenberg, received as a gift from the Greek Bishopric in Varna after Bulgaria’s Liberation from the Ottoman Empire in 1878.Thus, access to the site has been limited since 1890, and Kastritsi is said to be the only Bulgarian medieval city with a preserved port which has not seen any construction after the Late Middle Ages. The Kastritsi Fortress and City was first excavated in 1899 by Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist Karel Skorpil, who, together with his brother Hermann Skorpil, is the founder of modern-day Bulgarian archaeology. Its most recent archaeological excavations have been conducted every summer since 2004 by archaeologists from the Varna Museum of Archaeology (Varna Regional Museum of History) led by its Director, Prof. Valentin Pletnyov. The recent archaeological discoveries there include a treasure of 166 silver coins of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander (r. |
| The main item built with the generous sums donated and the chief achievement of Abbess Mary-Magdalene at the Maidens’ Convent of the Caves was the huge stone Ascension Cathedral that was completed by 1705. At the same time, from the 1690s the new convent’s ensemble was in fact created: a refectory, cells, a paved square, the wall, a gate tower, and a belfry. But the ways of God are past finding out! As soon as the convent was completed after the decades of unceasing labors, as soon as all the things were put in order and all was finished “at the top level”, its fate was sealed forever. The liquidation The Kiev Fortress. Photo: Wikipedia In the 1700s there was a prolonged military conflict between Russia and Sweden, at times between Russia and Turkey, and there was no confidence in Poland’s loyalty, so Kiev could have been siezed at any moment. For the protection of its strategic position, Peter I organized the building of the Kiev Fortress in 1706. Its layout included the buildings of the Kiev Caves Lavra, but in fact everything surrounding the Lavra was condemned to destruction. This applied, first of all, to numerous settlements of free peasants and gardeners attached to the Lavra (and, partly, to its convent). However, the “sword of Damocles” hung over the Maidens’ Convent of the Caves itself, since it stood beyond the new solid Lavra’s walls, which became a part of the fortification system. Undoubtedly, nothing could prevent them from making the convent a part of the fortress. But Tsar Peter and his inner circle (especially Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1665-1737), who then was Governor General of Kiev), pursuing their policies of state control over the Church, were happy to abolish as many monasteries and convents as possible and to weaken the Lavra, even if they were unable to close it. Before the victory in the Battle of Poltava (1709) construction work was carried out in other places (on the slopes of the Dnieper River) though, so ninety-year-old Abbess Mary-Magdalene thankfully did not live to see the devastation of her beloved abode. She had passed away before the destructions began, in 1707, much worrying about the “clearing” of the site for making a military town. However, her successor, a relative and namesake, Abbess Mary-Magdalene (Mokievskaya), had to leave the newly-built beautiful convent and move to the Florovsky Convent in Podil in 1711-1712 together with all her sisters. |
| The medieval Mother of God Monastery in Veliko Tarnovo was one of the major archaeological discoveries in Bulgaria in 2014. Its ruins are located to the southeast of the fortress wall of the Tsarevets Hill Fortress, in the so calledFrenkhisar, or “Frankish Quarter”, of the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire Tarnovgrad. The Frankish Quarter is overlooked by the so called Baldwin’s Tower. It is named after Latin EmperorBaldwin I of Constantinople (Baldwin of Flanders), ruler of the Latin Empire of the Crusaders from the Third Crusade, who was kept and died there in captivity, after was taken prisoner by the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan (r. 1197-1207 AD) in the Battle of Adrianople. While it had long been believed that the Frankish Quarter’s name stemmed from the fact that during the High and Late Middle Ages it was populated by Western European merchants trading in the Bulgarian capital Tarnovgrad, in 2010 Veliko Tarnovo archaeologist Evgeni Dermendzhiev carried outexcavations there and found no evidence of Western European presence. Instead, he discovered that in the High and Late Middle Ages the quarter was inhabited by Bulgarian craftsmen who specialized inmetallurgy and especially in iron production. The 2015 summer excavations in Tarnovgrad’s Frankish Quarter by Prof. Hitko Vatchev will continue for about 40 days. Vatchev believes at the foot of the Tsarevets Hill under the Baldwin’s Tower his team might find the ruins of one of the following medieval Bulgarian monasteries – the Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery or the Holy Mother of God Hodegetria (meaning “She Who Shows the Way”) Monastery. A map of Tarnovgrad, capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD), today’s Veliko Tarnovo, showing the location of Frenkhisar (the Frankish Quarter) in the southeast. Map: Martyr, Wikipedia This photo shows the 2010 excavations in the Frankish Quarter of the medieval Tarnovgrad, today’s Veliko Tarnovo, with the Fortress of the Tsarevets Hill, including Baldwin’s Tower (to the left) in the background. Photo: Borba daily |
| “The conquerors most probably gave the people from the local villages – Kokalyane, German, Lozen – the privilege of having a monastery of their own because they enjoyed the status of guardians of themountain pass between Sofia and Samokov,” hypothesizes lead archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov. However, even the special status of the local population did not save the monastery from destruction by the Ottoman Turks, which could have been an act of revenge against the local Christians during one of the many Ottoman-Habsburg Wars when the Austrian forces often advanced into the Western Balkans. Thus, the monastery surviving the Urvich Fortress, which itself was destroyed at the end of the 14thcentury, perished at the end of the 17th century during one of the Austro-Turkish Wars when theAustrians reached the town of Dragoman, almost reaching Sofia. They were repulsed, and the Turks ravaged all of Western Bulgaria, including the surviving monastery at Urvich, most likely in retaliation of the local Bulgarian population’s collaboration with the Austrian forces. The Bulgarian archaeologists have found evidence of a large fire at the monastery in the late 17thcentury, a hypothesis also supported by the discovery of a coin of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman II (r. 1687-1691). These artifacts and coins are the latest finds from the Urvich Monastery. Photo: bTV The Urvich Fortress and the St. Iliya Monastery are connected with legends about Tsar Ivan Shishman (r. 1371-1395 AD), the last Tsar of the so called Tarnovo Tsardom, one of the successor states of the Second Bulgarian Empire at the end of the 14th century. In 1371 AD, this is where the first major battle occurred between the forces of Tsar Ivan Shishman and the Ottoman Turks. The battle was a draw but the Turks did have to stop their advance for 7-8 years. Eventually, they took Sofia and Urvich in the 1380s. “In the darkest centuries of the Ottoman Yoke (i.e. the period of the Ottoman Yoke (1396-1878/1912) when Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire) the Urvich Monastery was like a beacon for Christianity and for the Bulgarians in the region. They came here to study, pray, and get married,” says Ovcharov. |
| Что интересно, языческие авторы и обыватели часто называли христиан именно Chrestianoi (греч.) или Chrestiani (лат.) - именно через «e», а не через «i» (Тацит. Анналы, 15.44; Тертулиан. Апология, 3 и др.). См., например, рассказ о наставлении и крещении Павлом Акилы и Прискиллы в в Синаксаре Константинопольской церкви X века (кодекс Cupмyhдa)Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Mensis Februarius//Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum. Novembris. Bruxellis, 1902. Col. 464; также Maenologium graecorum Basilii Parphirogenetus. Mensis Februarius//PG 117. Col. 312. В частности, G. Lüdemann Early Christianity according to the Traditions in Acts. Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. P. 209. Это была наиболее распространенная точка зрения среди эгзегетов и исследователей; нестандартное мнение высказал Г. Концельман в своем толковании, что Акила, Приска и Павел занимались изготовлением конской сбруи (H.Conzelmann. Acts of the Apostles. Fortress Press, 1987. P. 151), впрочем ничем его не подкрепив. 2 Кор 11:9 (Павел говорит здесь о крайнем недостатке средств у него на жизнь); ср. 1 Кор 4:11-13; 1 Фес 2:9. Прежде всего, по причине его небольшой величины; не исключено, что это была просто однокомнатная или двухкомнатная дешевая квартира на верхнем этаже многоэтажного дома. Именно апостолами вместе и Акила и Прискилла называются в греческом богослужебном последовании (см. в интернете по ссылке - http://analogion.net/glt/texts/Feb/13.uni.htm). Ссылки на работы, где авторы отстаивают такую точку зрения см. в: А. С. Небольсин, О. В. Венцель. Аполлос //Православная энциклопедия, т. 3. - М., 2002. - С. 72-73. - http://www.pravenc.ru/text/75682.html См., например, G. Lüdemann. Early Christianity according to the Traditions in Acts. Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. P. 207-208; См. E. Käsemann. Disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus//Essays on New Testament Themes. London: SCM, 1964. P. 144. Кстати отметить, взгляды как Кэземана, так и Людемана вполне вписываются в историософскую схему Луки: Иоанн Креститель как олицетворение дохристианской стадии истории спасения и следовательно несовершенного боговедения по сравнению с тем, которое люди приобретают благодаря Христу в эпоху Святого Духа, действующего и подаваемого через Церковь Христову. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Putin personally congratulates Patriarch Kirill on enthronization day Source: Interfax-religion Natalya Mihailova 02 February 2017 Moscow, February 1, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on his enthronization day and presented him with a collection of lithographs by Russian artist Igor Zadera, entitled Russian medieval fortresses and monasteries. At their meeting in Moscow on Wednesday the patriarch thanked Putin for help in promoting the dialogue between the church and the state. For his part, the president pledged to continue this work. “After eight years I can judge what a significant distance has still been walked, what dynamic this process has and what vector. And all this causes a very profound satisfaction with our pious people and, I think, with our whole society as well. Because this fosters our common consolidation, a concentration of forces for dealing with the problems facing our country today,” the patriarch said. In response Putin thanked him for this work. Igor Alexandrovich Zadera is a Russian graphic artist and lithographer. He graduated from Moscow State University of Printing Arts in 1997. He has been a member of the Russian Artists’ Union since 1992 and of UNESCO’s International Association of Art since 1993. Zadera uses the technique of manual print of original chromolithography and original hand-made paper. His Russian medieval fortresses and monasteries project contains 17 original lithographs depicting monuments of Russian architecture and monastic accomplishment. The pictures are engraved and printed by the author personally on a hand-moulded paper. The series was produced in Moscow in 2010 at a lithographic print workshop of the M.B.Grekov Studio of Military Artists. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Putin personally congratulates Patriarch Kirill on enthronization day |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Egypt to reopen centuries-old church Source: Turkish Weekly Natalya Mihailova 10 October 2014 Egyptian authorities on Saturday will reopen a church in southern Cairo – where the Holy Family is believed to have sought refuge 2,000 years ago – after 16 years of renovations. St. Mary " s - The Hanging Church (Photo by Keith Payne) In a Thursday statement, State Minister for Antiquities and Heritage Mamdouh al-Damati said renovations on the St. Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church – also known as the “Hanging Church” – had begun in 1998 and cost a total of 101 million Egyptian pounds (roughly million). Built in the late 4th and early 5th century AD, the church is important for Christians worldwide, having been built on the site where the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) reportedly took refuge after escaping from Herod, the Rome-appointed king of Judea. The church was dubbed the “Hanging Church” because of its location on a gatehouse of the Babylon Fortress, a Roman fortress built in Coptic Cairo. Ahmed Saed, an antiquities professor at Cairo University who took part in the restoration work, said renovations had taken so long because artists needed time to replicate the church’s ancient paintings. “The entrances and exits of the church were also renovated,” Saed told Anadolu Agency. The Hanging Church served as the papal seat of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church until the 13th century, according to Nashwa Gaber, head of the Antiquities Ministry’s technical office. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Egypt to reopen centuries-old church Natalya Mihailova In a Thursday statement, State Minister for Antiquities and Heritage Mamdouh al-Damati said renovations on the St. Virgin Mary " s Coptic Orthodox Church – also known as the " Hanging Church " – had begun in 1998 and cost a total of 101 million Egyptian pounds (roughly ... |
| The conference worked in plenary sessions and panel discussions devoted to such themes as “Global Wars and Global Historical Transformations”, “World War I – Why and What For?”, “World War I in the Philosophy and Values Dimension”, “World War I as a Historical Edification for Humankind”. During the opening of the conference, Bishop Nazary read out a message of greetings from the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Messages of greetings were also received from Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin. The working session opened with a paper presented by V. Yakunin, chairman of the Board of Patrons of the St. Andrew Foundation and president of the Russian Railways company. Present at the opening of the conference were Patriarch Irenaeus, Czechia’a ex-president Vaclav Klaus, Russian Ambassador A Chepurin, Prince Alexander II of Serbia and other dignitaries. In the evening of September 17, a grand concert took place at the Sava Center, in honour of those who fell in action for the liberation of Serbia. It was broadcast live by the Serbian television. After the conference finished its work on September 18, its participants came to the Tashmaydan Park to lay wreaths at the memorial to the children who were killed during the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999. This was followed by the requiem service at St Michael’s in memory of the Russian and Serbian soldiers who fell in World War I. After the service a procession with the cross was held from the cathedral to the Kalemegdan fortress to open a commemorative symbol in honour of the soldiers who were killed defending the fortress. The commemorative events concluded with a solemn reception at the Russian Embassy in Serbia. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Commemorative events in Belgrade to mark centenary of beginning of World War I Natalya Mihailova The Russian Orthodox Church’s official delegation was led by Bishop Nazary of Kronstadt, abbot of the St. Alexander Nevsky Laura of the Holy Trinity. On September 16, a Russian-Serbian round-table conference was held in the Russian House in Belgrade. Historians from Russia and Serbia as well as ... |
| The basilica of ancient Montanesium was first excavated in the early 1980s by Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Alexandrov. Kabakchieva resumed the excavations in 2009 and 2010. The ruins of the early Christian temple are located outside the fortress walls of Montanesium, so that it would allow easier access for the residents of the plain lying to the northeast. The basilica was 24 meters long, and is estimated to have been between 15 and 18 meters tall. Its ruins reveal its architecture was modeled after the architectural traditions of the Middle Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire – Syria and Palestine. In fact, the basilica in Montana is one out of a total of three known Syrian-type early Christian basilicas in today’s Bulgaria, the other two being located on the Black Sea coast: in today’s Black Sea city of Varna (ancient Odessa), and in today’s resort town of Sozopol (ancient Apollonia Pontica), on the St. Ivan Island, where relics of St. John the Baptist were discovered in 2010, and an early Christian tomb was found in 2015 by Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The early Christian basilica in Bulgaria’s Montana was a three-nave rectangular temple with a two-story roof, and two side rooms, one for men and one for women. The southern part of the basilica was entirely dug into the rocky hill. The temple had a large atrium with two entrance passages, from the west and from the north. It could also be directly accessed from the fortress wall of Montanesium via a wooden ladder. “Our goal is to reveal the ruins of one of the most important early Christian basilicas, " lead archaeologist Kabakchieva is quoted as saying, comparing the early importance of the temple in Montana only to two other early Christian basilicas on the Balkan Peninsula found in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Sandanski (ancient Parthicopolis) in Southwest Bulgaria. Once the renewed archaeological excavations of the basilica in Montana are completed, the walls and staircases of the ancient temple will be partially rebuilt. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation 12 Archaeological Sites in Dobrudja Will Become Accessible for Online Tours Source: Basilica.ro tefana Totorcea 09 June 2021 Photo credit: Traveleuropa Ancient fortresses Tomis, Callatis, Histria, Adamclisi, Capidava, Carsium, Ibida, Argamum, Noviodunum, Halmiris, Ulmetum and Enisala, situated in Dobrudja, by the Black Sea, will become accessible for online tours starting from July 1. “The website will be bilingual (Romanian – English), accessible also on mobile devices, and it will present an interactive map of 12 of the most important archaeological websites in Constana and Tulcea counties,” mentions a press release published by “Georgiana Rusu” Cultural Association, the project initiator. The website visitors will be able to exchange opinions and post reviews with impressions from their virtual visits in a special communication section. The website is part of the “Interactive Map of the Dorudjan Fortresses” project, which aims to use new technologies in order to improve and expand the access of the national and international audience to patrimonial landmarks of Dobrudja. “Surfing the website will be extremely easy: clicking on the link will open the home page with a full-screen map of Dobrudja (relief, waterways, cities and towns, roads). A click or touch on the pictogram will access the wanted archaeological site,” say the initiators. The cultural project was financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCEN) and has been made under the patronage of the event “Constana – Romanian Youth Capital 2021 – 2022”. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog 12 Archaeological Sites in Dobrudja Will Become Accessible for Online Tours tefana Totorcea Ancient fortresses Tomis, Callatis, Histria, Adamclisi, Capidava, Carsium, Ibida, Argamum, Noviodunum, Halmiris, Ulmetum and Enisala, situated in Dobrudja, by the Black Sea, will become accessible for online tours starting from July 1. “The website will be bilingual (Romanian – English), ... |
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