성 콘스탄틴과 엘레나 성당(Saints Constantine & Helena Orthodox Church). 플로브디프(Plovdiv)

성 콘스탄틴과 엘레나 성당

(Saints Constantine & Helena Orthodox Church).

플로브디프(Plovdiv). 불가리아(Bulgaria)

네벳테페(Nebet Tepe) 부근에 있는 성 콘스탄틴과 엘레나 성당(St. Konstantin & Elena Church)은 기독교 공인 직후인 4세기에 세워져 플로브디프에서 가장 오래된 성당이며, 콘스탄티누스 대제(Constantine)와 그 어머니 엘레나(Helena)에게 헌정되었다.

보통 교회와는 다르게 이 교회는 성벽 안에 십자가가 올려져 있는 망루를 세워놓은 모습이다.

이러한 외관은 오스만 제국 시대에 높은 담을 쌓아서 기독교 성당임을 숨겼기 때문이며, 그 덕분에 성당으로 남을 수 있었다고 한다.

내부는 외관보다 화려하며, 콘스탄티누스가 꿈에서 계시를 받는 모습을 그린 프레스코화가 인상적이다.

Saints Constantine & Helena Orthodox Church

Храм "Св. св. Константин и Елена"

 The complex of the Saint Konstantin and Helena Church, which includes several church buildings with different purposes, is located south of Hisar Kapia. In the space surrounded by a highstone wall with a decorative brick cornice, besides the church, there is also a high bell tower, a sexton's premise, a priest's premise, a marble fountain, and a school. The complex is accessible from the west through a large courtyard gate that takes you to a cobblestone street. At the eastern courtyard gate is the building of the Bozhi Grob Convent, in which monks from Jerusalem used to stay. From the east, the buildings overlap or border with the early Byzantine fortress wall of Philippopolis from the 5th-6th centuries, which is part of the architectural and historical Round Tower Complex - Hisar Kapia.

 In 304,m at the place where the church is today, upon the persecution of Emperor Diocletian against the Christians, the martyrs Severian and Memnos were decapitated. Before the m, 38 martyrs from Plovdiv were also persecuted because of their faith.

 The temple dedicated to the apostles Constantine and Helena, located at this place, is mentioned in the travel book of German theologian Stephan Gerlach who visited Plovdiv in 1578.

 At the beginning of the 19th century, when the economic power of the Bulgarian Christian community grew, the chief governor of the temple, Todor Moravenov, collected funds for its reconstruction, and another prominent Plovdiv reivalist Valko Kurtovich Chalakov obtained a sultan decree for the restoration of the two nearby churches Sveta Nedelya and Saints Konstantin and Elena. The church was restored in 1832 by masters from the town of Bratsigovo. Soon after, the high wood-carved iconostasis, done by John Pashkula of the village of Metsovo, was completed. The icons on the two rows were made by the Revival artist Zahari Zograf, who worked here in the period from 1834 to 1866. Later Nikola Odrinchinin and Stanislav Dospevski also left their works here. In the period from 1864 to 1866 the walls of the church were painted by Stefan Andonov and 1866 the walls of the church were painted by Stefan Andonov and Atanas Gyudzhenov of the town of Pazardzhik. They also decorated the iconostasis with gilding and rich polychromy.

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