The "Boyanska cherkva" National Museum (The Boyana church)

2008-02-18T23:35:00.000+02:00

(Bulgarian)

Address: Boyana neighbourhood, 3, Boyansko ezero str.
Working hours: 09:00 – 17:00; closed on Monday

The Boyana Church “St. St. Nikola and Panteleimon” is a small medieval church, located in the Sofia neighbourhood of Boyana. It consists of three consecutively built parts – the oldest one dated back to X – XI c., the successively added in XIII c. two-storeyed church and the third part, erected in XIX c.

The Boyana church

The church has been included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO, owing to more than 240 preserved precious frescoes of 1259. They are of high artistic quality and undeniably contribute to the European art culture.
In the portraits of the founders Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Desislava and of the royal couple Tsar Konstantin Tih (Tikh) Asen and Tsaritsa Irina are rendered all details of clothing and the faces show all individual details. That is why it is accepted that these are real portraits, probably painted by nature, moreover at the time when portraiture was in its beginning.
The images of the saints are vivid and saturated, with a psychological profundity – features that were characteristic of the Renaissance and not of the strict canonical portraits which do not allow humanizing.
Part of the religious scenes depicts elements of people’s customs of that time.
All these pieces of art have been created before Giotto was born (ca. 1267 - 1337) – the forefather of the Italian Renaissance, and 200 years before Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564).

Collage of frescos from Boyana church, 1259

The later frescos (from 14c) are also of high artistic and historic value. For example, in “The Presentation of the Virgin” fresco, the rare scene of “The feeding of the Virgin from an angel” was painted next to the main theme.

Fresco “The presentation of the Virgin”, 14c (National History Museum)

The park around the church was formed in 1917 after an order of Tsar Ferdinand for the funeral of Tsaritsa Eleonore.

Tsaritsa Eleonore cemetery

There are three gigantic sequoias in the park, more than a century old.

А sequoia (redwood) in the park

Unique Balkans

Monasteries in Bulgaria

The "Boyanska cherkva" National Museum (The Boyana church)