Description of the attraction
Blagoevgrad is a Bulgarian city located in southwestern Bulgaria, a hundred kilometers from Sofia. During the Turkish occupation, the city changed its name several times, one of them is Jumaya. In the 18-19 centuries, on the eastern bank of the Bistritsa River, the Varosha quarter was erected for the Bulgarian population of the city, which has survived to this day almost in its original form and remains the most interesting and popular area of Blagoevgrad among tourists. The place is very picturesque, the atmosphere of the Bulgarian Renaissance has been preserved here: cobbled narrow streets, old houses surrounded by high stone fences, with whitewashed facades and wooden verandas. There are many architectural, historical and cultural monuments in Varosha, one of which is the current church of the Presentation of the Virgin into the Temple.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Bulgarians received permission from the Sultan to build a church in the Varosha quarter. In 1840, the construction of the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin began, it was consecrated and opened in 1844. For another half a century, the church was being completed and painted. The building itself is a three-aisled basilica, on the eastern side of which there is a semicircular apse. The murals of the temple were made by specially invited masters from the Bulgarian cities of Samokov and Bansko, who are famous for their painting schools. Work on painting the temple walls began in 1879 and lasted ten years. The iconostasis of the church is one of the most outstanding examples of wood carving dating back to the Renaissance in Bulgaria. The iconostasis is carved on the model of the iconostasis from the Rila Monastery, but it is smaller.
