Church of the Assumption (Pchelino)

Overview

Assumption is a Revival Orthodox church in the Pchelino convent of the Stavropigial Bulgarian Rila Monastery. The church is located a few hundred meters north up the mountain from the convent. The church was built in 1789. The founder is Metropolitan Seraphim of Bosnia, a Bulgarian from Bansko and a former abbot of the Rila Monastery. Architecturally, it is a single-nave vaulted temple with an open narthex from the south and west. To the east there is an apse built into the thickness of the east wall. The construction is massive of quarry stones and solder mud. Wooden beams - tensioners are used. The ceiling of the temple and the iconostasis are wooden and decorated with oil-painted stars, flowers and more. The royal order of icons, painted in 1789 by Zachary Galatishki - St. John of Rila, Assumption, Our Lady of Pantanas, St. George, St. John the Baptist and Christ Pantocrator, is stored in the Icon Gallery of the Rila Monastery. Samokov Art School, made in 1784 and 1789. It is understood from the preserved donor inscription that the frescoes of the church were completed on March 9, 1834. The church was painted by the famous swimmer Dimitar Molerov. Impressive is the intricate composition of the Last Judgment, painted on the entire west wall on the outside of the vestibule. Both the founder's portraits of Sebastian the hieromonk and the hermit and Seraphim the Bulgarian bishop on the west wall in the nave, to the left of the door, are beautiful. Remarkable is the unique for Bulgaria mural image of the Holy Mother of God Queen of Heaven with prototype symbols on the east wall of the temple, to the right of the apse niche. The Holy Mother of God is depicted in full length, sitting on a throne with the Infant on her knees.