Description of the attraction
The Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul was built in the village (which later became a city) Dobrinishte in 1835. It became the second, after the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, erected in 1684, a church in the city.
At the beginning of the Balkan War in 1913, the Greeks and Turks set fire to Dobrinishte. One of the three places set on fire by the invaders was the tower. Soon the fire from the eastern side crept up to the building of the Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Seeing this, the Greek officer ordered the soldiers to take water from the river and extinguish the temple. So he was saved. After the fire, which turned the settlement to ashes, many residents of Dobrinishte left it. However, a lot of elderly and weak people remained here, who eventually saved the temple icons. Among them there are truly valuable ones: "Resurrection of Christ", "Holy Mother of God" and others, brought to the Iberian monastery from Armenia. In addition, a Byzantine cross of special value with exquisite carvings from 1194 has survived. On the floor of the temple there is a marble slab with a double-headed eagle - the Byzantine coat of arms. Such stone slabs are characteristic of temples from 1200 to 1300. The one in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul was brought from the neighboring Church of the Holy Mother of God, which was destroyed.
In 1926, the building was restored and reconstructed, and a bell tower was added to it. The interior of the church is striking: an iconostasis with three gates, on which ancient icons are exhibited; the royal gates with openwork carvings and partially painted in different colors and gilded elements (they were made by craftsmen from the city of Debar). Ten royal icons painted in 1835 and in the second half of the 19th century are also of interest. Some of the small icons are painted by representatives of the art school of Bansko. Since 1867, a painted bishop's throne and pulpit have been located in the nave, and a carved wooden canopy is located above the altar.
