The Boyana Church Museum
A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bulgaria Featuring Ancient Frescoes.
Sometimes a museum is actually the exhibit. The medieval frescoes at Boyana Church National History Museum in Bulgaria, preserve the Veliko Turnovo School of Painting.
The Boyana Church National History Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sofia, Bulgaria, is adorned with 700-year-old frescoes. Sited at the foot of Mt. Vitosha, the oldest part of the church was built in the late 10th and early 11th century. A second section was commissioned by local governor Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Dessislava and in the mid-13th century.
Boyana Church is one of the few medieval monuments testifying to the significant contribution of Bulgarian monumental painting to European culture during the Middle Ages. Boyana is the only wholly preserved monument of the Turnovo School of Painting from the 13th century.
The Turnovo School took its name from Veliko Turnovo, an ancient town with evidence of human residents as far back as the Bronze Age (13th Century B.C.). After the Liberation from Byzantine rule, Veliko Turnovo continued to be a sanctuary for Bulgarians, representing Bulgarian national spirit and self-awareness.
The Boyana frescoes are Turnovo masterpieces painted with flawless technique, exhibiting psychological depth, complexity, and realism. These still-colorful murals inside Boyana were produced by unknown artists who had mastered a tradition of art that became the hallmark of the Turnovo School of Painting.
A total of 18 scenes in the Boyana narthex depict the Life of St. Nicholas, with a nod to the artists’ contemporary life. In The Miracle at Sea, the ship and the sailor's hats represented contemporary Venetian seafaring headgear.
The 240 figures depicted in the Boyana Church adhere to the icon painting established by the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 787. Full-size paintings of the donors, Kaloyan and Dessilsava, and of the Bulgarian King Konstantin Assen Tih and Queen Irina were added to the religious leaders depicted. Kaloyan and King Assen Tih were relatives.
Not satisfied with merely documenting his royal connection, in one scene Kaloyan presents a scale model of the Boyana Church to St. Nicholas, inserting himself into the saint’s world. In Bulgarian folklore, St. Nicholas was honored as protector of sailors and fishermen. The Bulgarian St. Nikolay calms wind and storms and protects ships in danger.
Four church fathers depicted at Boyana include St. Gregory the Theologian who sought refuge in Bulgaria from the Turks, where he established a monastery at Paroria in the Stranozka mountains. St Gregory, along with St. Basil the Great and John Chrysostom, form the Three Holy Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church. The fourth father represented is Patriarch Germanus who protested against Byzantine emperor Leo III's demand to destroy all church images.
Perhaps Patriarch Germanus’ wishes have been honored. Centuries after the little Boyana Church was decorated and renovated – not once, but twice - the images of the Turnovo artists survive today under the protection of UNESCO at the Boyana Church National History Museum.
