Boyana Church and National Museum of History

This weekend, instead of hiking, we decided to go museuming. On Saturday we visited the Boyana Church. It is a small church, located in Boyana, at the skirts of Vitosha, known for its amazing murals. Taking pictures in the church is absolutely forbidden, entrance is allowed only in small groups of max 8 people and is limited to 10 min per group, to preserve the gorgeous and precious murals.

 The church is a Unesco World Heritage monument.

Husband and I were extremely lucky, as at the time we were about to enter we were let in with a small group of students of medieval studies with their professor and a medievalist expert. So instead of the standard 10  min guide talk we were able to enjoy a lecture on the history of the church and the various details of the murals at an expert level. We were so, so delighted!

I was well prepared in advance with what to expect as the most significant of murals are well known and studied in school, but in real life they still managed to amaze me and fill me with awe for the imagination and skill of the year-1259 artist and his helpers. Apart from religious scenes with very realistic images of Christ and the saints, the murals also include the first secular portraits of Bulgarian rulers and their wives.

The grave of the wife of tzar Ferdinand, Eleonora, who understood the significance of the church and was instrumental in preserving it as a historical monument.

And on Sunday we visited the National Museum of History. We've been to the museum several times with the children, but today we were able to walk through it by ourselves and it was a different experience. And I love old things! It is always so moving to see pieces of art centuries and some even millennia years old!

Probably one of the most famous artifacts in the museum - the Panagyurishte  treasure:

 Replicas of crowns from the Second Bulgarian Kingdom:

 Replicas of two of the murals in the Boyana church - the donator of the church

and the Bulgarian ruler of the time:

Traditional clothes as of the XVIII-XIX centuries:

Dorkovo

We first read about Dorkovo - a cute little village in the Western Rhodope Mountains, in an article in National Geographic about the paleontological site and the Pliocene museum there. Then we checked with Google and found about the annual International festival for authentic folklore, held in the village during the first days of August. So a plan was formed to visit the village on August the 2nd.

The two hours drive, first along the Trakia highway and then along the winding and a bit scary but very picturesque road, cutting through the Western Rhodope, finally brought us to the village in the height of the festival. I had my fears that all the noise, crowds and loud markets, filled with made in China articles, which usually accompany such festivals, might spoil the experience, but I was wrong. All of the above was present, but accompanied with so much smiles, laughter and good moods that it seemed that nobody could help it but enjoy themselves :)

Even grumpy teenage Alex, who does his best to skip and avoid family outings (because it's so uncool to hang out with your parents (wink) :))) got into the mood of the festival:

During the two festival days folklore ensembles from various places in Bulgaria and several other European countries perform on the stage for 15 to 30 minutes each, building up a 12 hour non-stop program - the variety makes the festival very entertaining.

Only a mile from the village is the Pliocene museum, which features the fossils from mastodons dating to the Early Pliocene, discovered near the village.

The reconstruction of the star of the museum was based on the biggest fossils found in the paleontological site, which are evidently the biggest for this species found so far.

After a very delicious lunch in the village (chicken steaks grilled right in front of us to our own individual preference :)) we went to the second landmark of the area - Tsepina Fortress. The ruins of the medieval fortress, built on a peak some 6 km from the village, are still being excavated. The fortress had a major importance for the defense of the borders from Byzantine and later Ottoman attacks and was destroyed by the Ottoman army after Bulgaria fell under Ottoman rule in the late 14th century.

The panorama view from the fortress to the green pastures and round peaks of the Rhodope Mountains is spectacular and combined with the chime of the cow bells, which was audible as high up the hill, made the experience somewhat surreal. I so love the Rhodopes!