Church of St. Archangel Michael in the village of Goranovtsi

Overview

"St. Archangel Michael" is a medieval Bulgarian church near the village of Goranovtsi, Kyustendil municipality. The church is built on the foundations of an older church. Some authors suggest that the old church was destroyed in the twelfth century, during the Pecheneg invasions. The construction is made of quarry stones, welded with white mortar. It is a small one-nave and one-apse church with a length of 6.85 and a width of 4.35 m, without a narthex. To the east it ends with a semicircular apse. It was covered with a semi-cylindrical vault, which has now been restored. It may have had a dome (the south wall depicts the saint with a model of a church in his hand). The inner longitudinal walls are divided by three blind arched niches. The west wall is shaped with an arched niche with anti. The entire interior of the church was painted. Now the murals are preserved only at the bottom of the walls. Asen Vasiliev dates the painting from the XIV century, Vera Ivanova-Mavrodinova takes it to the XVI - XVII century. Probably the church itself was built in the 13th century, as evidenced by the coin material found in the immediate vicinity. This dating is also supported by the presence of a masonry altar partition, traces of which are preserved to this day. In the past, the church was part of a small monastery. No historical data on the time of its foundation have been preserved. In the detailed Ottoman register for the Kyustendil Sandzak from 1570 the monastery is described as active and together with the village of Goranovtsi it is a part of the nahia Uladzha (Kyustendil). It is no coincidence that the area where the church is located is called "The Monastery". The church is an artistic cultural monument with a category of "national significance". The temple holiday is on Archangel's Day - November 8.