The Bulgarian Architecture through the period XV – XVII century

The end of the 14th century brings the biggest disaster for the cultures of the Balkan nations and for the Bulgarian glamorous medieval culture, which core is the eastern orthodoxy. During 5 centuries the Bulgarian nationality walks the difficult path of saving and rebirth of the national identity.
The beginning is with the fall of the keeps of the Bulgarian rulers, of their castles and churches, of the rich old monasteries, of the big and rich trade cities. The Bulgarian tzars and boliars vanish being contributors to the building of churches.
The few survivors are some of the monasteries which are distant from the war paths, recovering slowly from the damage, to become centers, guarding the spiritual values – language, religion and literature.
The Christian monasteries and temples are the only places, in which, feeling that they are under God’s protection, the Bulgarians get the feeling that there is a divine power which can give them justice in the unsafe and hostile world. They become aware as persons and part from a community united from the faith only at these places. This huge turning point in the social psychology, this fundamental change in the attitude towards the world and its problems is being done very fast and leads to significant changes in the culture of the Bulgarian lands. It unlocks the process of self-awareness of the population as one community. Surrounded by rulers, which speak language different form theirs, having faith which they do not have, which they do not know and do not accept, the Bulgarians begin to realize as a community of Bulgarians-christians. The eastern-orthodox temple becomes spiritual keep for these underprivileged people and they give everything they can to rise a church in their home town or in the Bulgarian neighborhood of the populated with ottoman settlers big old cities. Contributors for rising of the churches are all lay brothers with their free labor and materials. Contributors are the craftsman societies, the only wealthier Bulgarian communities, also the worshipers in the monasteries, the survived after the defeat boliars in the areas who became feudatory of the central power. The church buildings are small, hidden among the houses of the villages or behind the walls of the monasteries, but carefully decorated with frescoes and carvings following the traditions of the past. The monasteries which survived the invasion keep their medieval churches and the ones which were destroyed were replaced with small ones. That way the small churches become main architecture type for the period between XV – XVI century.
In Sredec, severely damaged by the invasion, the churches from this type are several. One of the earliest amongst them was raised with money from the Samardzhian guild and is devoted to St.Velikomachenica Paraskeva. It is now known as St.Petka Samardzhiiska. It was build over medieval foundations small with massive building. In the last fourth of 16th century it was drawn while its frescoes were renovated several times.
Proof for the fast and general widespread of this type of small churches is their huge number build during 15th and 16th century. The differences between the churches throughout the country are: in the area around river Struma the churches are higher and have something like arch on their western facade, in the villages next to the river Danube some of the have wide narthexes, but the differences are small as a whole.
The monasteries built during this period also follow this “small church” type. In the great number of monasteries around Sredec, named later on Sofiyska Sveta Gora, the buildings do not make exception, despite their rich frescoes decoration. The temple of the monastery in Kremikovci, devoted to St.Georgi Pobedonosec, is small, massively built, with two consequently added narthexes, one of them missing nowadays. The extremely valuable frescoes date from 1492 - 1493 years as founders are the bishop Kalevit and the boliar Radivoy which proofs that some of the medieval titles exit on the Balkans.
A memorial church marking the extremely important for the nationality event – the return of the relics of St.Ioan Rilski from Tarnovo to The Rila Monastery is based in the convent Orlica, which is on the way to the monastery. A temporary building was built there during 1469 year for containing the relics and during 1478 y. was built the nowadays existing church. In 1491 year it was frescoed wholly and in 1853 year Nikola Obrazopisec draws a huge panorama showing us the great event from the 15th century above the entrance.
During the period 15th – 16th century the church culture gain also the role of saver of the remains of the glamorous medieval culture of the Bulgarian country. That way the culture system of the slaved Bulgarian nationality combines two cultural subsystems: Christian church culture and national culture, which includes elements, originated at different times during the long life of the Bulgarian ethnos, and which as any other culture, survives no matter the historic cataclysms.
The relationship between these two subsystems and the official ottoman culture are very difficult. They exist on same territory, interact one to another and remain isolated for more than 500 years. The explanation of this almost unbelievable historical phenomenon is in the character of the imperial system of the ottomans and in the fact that between rulers and enslaved lies the invincible ideological border of the faith.
The Ottoman empire receives rich inheritance from Byzantium as in the area of the culture as in the area of the country organization, despite the religious differences. The official imperial culture is a non-homogeneous mixture from the Byzantium inheritance, the culture of the emirates from Asia Minor, which is in zenith during the 11th century, the brought from the Asian countries and the tribal groups, enslaved by the Ottomans, while the only connection between them is their medieval character. The circumstance, that the elements of this non-homogeneous entity are already old and does not have the assimilative abilities, inherent for every young cultural organism, saves the Bulgarian cultural communities, which during the time of enslavement, have already entered the processes stages to the New time. This circumstance allows them to separate as second, “independent power”, and to develop, even though slowly, in a direction opposite to the official culture. The architecture also stratifies to official (ottoman) and national (Bulgarian, Christian).
The sultan’s rule is being done through a difficult system of inner subjections. The Ottoman power is aristocratic in the military area, the distribution of land, fiscal politics. The spiritual and partly the civil management was trusted to a system of religious municipalities: greek-orthodox (rum-mileti), Armenian-gregorian and Judaic (iachudi-milleti). They had the rights and the obligations to collect the taxes, to take care of the education, of the healthcare, for the social needs of the members of their ethnic groups, to resolve their property, and dramas in their lives.
The Ottomans take rich inheritance from the architecture of Byzantium. Combined with the inheritance of the Asia Minor emirates it gives birth in 16th century (500 years after the foundation of the Ottoman country) to the official Ottoman architecture, which has its differences according to which part of the vast empire is being built. On the Balkans, which are nearest to the capital, this architecture saves most of the lines of the Byzantine construction, and also some of the traditions of the architecture of the Balkan nations. Here is settled the type of centric mosque with a dome, here you can see almost no differences between the houses of the Muslims and the Christians, belonging to a same stratum.
The public ottoman architecture includes several types of buildings. The sacred construction consists of: mosques, medreseta, turbeta and Muslim monasteries. The town halls are: police offices, offices of a muftis, and prisons; the public construction for civil needs consists of closed and opened markets, baths and caravanserais. Among the gret number of mosques, built on the Bulgarian lands, indisputable architecture buildings are: Djumaq mosque in Plovdiv, an example of the early type of multi-dome mosque, brought from the East, Tombul mosque in Shumen, an example for the created after the 16th century type of central dome mosque and Bania Bashi mosque in Sofia. The save roofed market in Jambol is one of the most beautiful roofed markets on the peninsula and the destroyed during the 30th years of 20th century Kurshum Han in Plovdiv the caravanserai in Skopie were the standards for this type of construction far away from the peninsula.
At the end of 17th century, marked by the first serious defeats of the Empire, the attitude of the imperial power changes, although half-and-half, towards the deprived of rights lots of people “raia” consisted mostly from Bulgarians. The conditions of its existence are relieved, so it can work better and to supply the treasury. The Bulgarian nation in these days not only “survives”, but begins to grow in numbers, to build better houses, and to expand, and build new churches, mainly in the villages.
Looking through the architectural and artistic history the period between 15th and 17th century is in time which changes, allowing to reach renewal of the church construction and art, renovation based on the saved for 3 centuries historic memory. The Bulgarian Renaisance wouldn’t be possible if the fibre of the historic being was about to be cut if the processes of realization of the uniting power of the religion were not done. In this way of speaking the period between 15th and 17th century is “Prehistory” for the rebirth of the Bulgarian spirituality and the foundation of the Bulgarian nation. It is also “prehistory” in the evolving of the church typology, because in the small churches you can see the elements, form which the writers of the Bulgarian national revival will build the structures of the church buildings of their time and with which will cover the Bulgarian lands as demonstration of the realization as one common Christianity nation following its religious, cultural and construction traditions.
A Christian temple built in the very beginning of the 17th century (1604y.), looks different from the common line of development. It is situated in the monastery “St.Bogorodica Petrichka” next to village Bachkovo, using extraordinary privileges, because it is under the sign of the greek Patriarchate. Therefore, there rises a catholicon with incredibly huge size for these times and with a strange architectural view. The building belongs to the type of cross-dome churches and has a central dome based on four columns. The dome steps on a high drum cut through a great number of windows. The size of the building is impressive, because the new construction is contiguous to the medieval church “St.Archangeli”, the temple is not only center of the monastery, but also a place for the monastery ensemble. The naos is separated from the altar with iconostasis over which is implicated wood-carved templon with composition sets the beginning of new line for the iconostasis.
The temple “Uspenie Bogorodichno” proofs that the medieval architecture and construction traditions are still alive and all that is going to be necessary is will be the push of one social-economic rebirth to be turned into the basis of the architecture development.
The condition of the village structure is similar, although the big old cities such as: Serdica, Trimontium, Zagore, Turnovgrad and so on are inhabited with turks, came during the great migration of peoples in the beginning of 15th century and the beginning of 16th century, and the Bulgarians, who live next to lively military roads, are moving to hardly accessible places in the mountains, where they establish new villages, which become town later on. The development of these villages with Bulgarian population is a display about the tendencies which lay under the beginning of the Bulgarian village pattern.
A village, which survived a few historic moments, storing clear tracks from any of them, can be used as an example for the new city’s processes which will follow during this and the other centuries. During 17th and 18th centuries it shows in brightest way the joint of the medieval principles and skills with the new bourgeois beliefs. This is Arbanasi, next to Turnovgrad. During the middle-ages, known as village of Zagore, this was the place where the rich and famous citizens of the bulgarian capitol, were spending the summer months, getting away from the heat in the city. The archeological researches made during the restoration of some of the big houses from Arbanasi prove us that their core is from the middle-ages. Some cells were added around this stone core during the 17th and 18th centuries, which reflect to the changes, happened in the way of living and the conditions of life of the rich people inhabiting the village. There are different opinions about the ethnical belonging of the owners of these houses, which differ from the common house construction from this time. According to some authors, they were Albanians, moved after the ottoman violence in Albania, others claim that, that they were settlers from close Bulgarian villages, but all of them agree that the main population of Arbanasi consisted of rich traders who had connections with Vlashko, Moldova, Asia Minor and other more distant countries. This explains the luxury, which distinguishes the houses from Arbanasi from the common villages in Stara Planina. The village had some monasteries and some village churches, a fact which differs it from the Bulgarian villages from this period, typical for the middle-ages. Not all of the temples are kept nowadays, but the remaining ones are valuable historical legacy. Amongst the saved church buildings we can differ four which are extraordinary. Church “Rozhdestvo Hristovo”. The basic part of the building, dating back from the end of the 16th century, is massive, one-shipped, vaulted with semi-cylindrical vault. A wide hole is added later on, and during a latter restoration an arcadic narthex from south and west was added. The openings were sealed later on and the narthex turned into second G-shaped hole, in which a chapel was formed in its eastern part named after St. Ioan Krastitel. All cells are written, as the wall-paintings in the naos and the hole date from 14th century, and the whole writing finished in 1681 year. The basic iconostasis dated from 1681 year. The existing ones nowadays dates from 18th century. The names of the icon-painters are unknown, but we can see in some images the author’s writing of a whole group of wall-painters. Church “St.Archangels Mihail and Gavrail”. Built most probably during the 17th century, finished at the 18th century. The first building had one-shipped naos with a blind dome and a big narthex. Similarly to the church “Rozhdestvo Hristovo” along its north wall a nartex was built, in which a separate chapel was formed. During the 1760 – 1761 years, the church was painted all – over. The main icon-painters, who worked in it are Michael from Thesaloniki and George from Bucharest. The iconostasis existing nowadays is from 1813 year. Church “Uspenie Bogorodichno” is one-shipped, with two porches and a big chapel, devoted to “St.Troica”. Built most probably at 17th century, because the wall-paintings date from 1600 year. And from 1603 year in the female department. The chapel si wall-painted from schoolmaster Kosta, schoolmaster Tzonyo and Gerge in 1704 year. The iconostasis dates form 1867 year. The sepulchral church “St.Anastasiy” is one-shipped with narthex and chapel on its south side, with independent hole. The naos is wall-painted during 1667 year. and saves one of the most-qualited wall-paintings made during the 17th century. The chapel was decorated later on (1724 – 1726 years) from schoolmasters Tzonyo and Nedyo and the narthex – during the 19th century.