Medieval church of St. George

Overview

St. George the Victorious ”is a medieval Bulgarian church in the town of Kyustendil. The church is located in the Kolusha district at the foot of the Osogovo mountain. Kolusha was the seat of the Kyustendil metropolitan during the Ottoman Empire. The church is cross-domed, of the "inscribed cross" type, measuring 10 meters long without the narthex and 8.70 meters wide. It is built on stone foundations of bricks, with the so-called. "Hidden rows", a technique in which rows of bricks are plastered across one of the facades. The dome and the walls end with an under-roof two-row cornice type "wolf tooth". According to its architectural features and the recently discovered medieval frescoes, its dating can be dated to the XI-XII century. It is a national cultural monument of great architectural, artistic and historical value. Inside, frescoes from the 12th, 15th, 16th and 19th centuries have been discovered, representing rare monuments of church painting. The medieval iconography, the work of master painters from the Thessaloniki school, is represented by the Christian saints - Panteleimon and Ermolai, Kozma and Damian, Mina as well as by the saints Varvara, Nedelya, Petka and Ekaterina. The best preserved image is of St. Nicholas. From the XV-XVI century are the frescoes of Sava Srbski and John the Baptist. There is an assumption that here is the tomb of the Bulgarian Tsar Michael III Shishman, killed in the battle of Velbazhd in 1330. After the Liberation between 1878 - 1882 the church was renovated. An additional part has been built to it - a vestibule and a bell tower. The walls inside and out are covered with new plaster and painted by local and Samokov masters. In the immediate vicinity of the church is the Revival building, where some of the preserved Revival icons and other monuments of church painting are exhibited. The medieval frescoes are rare monuments, bearing the characteristic features of the monumental Byzantine painting in Bulgaria, and the Revival ones - expand and enrich the ideas about the Bulgarian church painting from this period. The church has great historical, artistic and architectural value. The church is an architectural monument of culture of national importance and an artistic monument of culture of national importance. The church celebrates Saint's Day on May 6.