page_title: Bachkovo Monastery
section_title: Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Bachkovo Monastery / Complex / Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: Bachkovo Monastery, Bachkovo, Bulgaria: the main Church of the Holy Mother of God
context_page_description: The Bachkovo Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, archaically the Petritsoni Monastery or Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa is a major Eastern Orthodox monastery in Southern Bulgaria. It is located on the right bank of the Chepelare River, 189 km from Sofia and 10 km south of Asenovgrad, and is directly subordinate to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery is known and appreciated for the unique combination of Byzantine, Georgian and Bulgarian culture, united by the common faith.
context_section_description: The Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary (dating from 1604) is the place where a valuable icon of the Virgin Mary Eleusa from 1310 is kept (brought from Georgia). According to the legend, the icon is wonder-working, attracting many pilgrims. This church was built in the place of the monastery's oldest church destroyed by the Turks. The building has survived to this day in its original structure of a three- aisled, cruciform domed basilica with three pentagonal apses. A silver- gilded cross rising from the dome bears the inscription "Always win!" in Georgian. The murals in the spacious narthex were painted in 1643 and depict a life-size portraits of Georgi and his son Constantine, who were high-ranking notables in Istanbul and donors to the church. The frescoes in the nave were painted much later, in 1850, by Joan Mosch (master Mosko). The two central icons in the iconostasis are exactly dated – 1793. these the icons of The Holy Virgin and Jesus Christ. The woodwork — iconostasis, bishop's throne and the like, dates from the 18th century.
caption: The Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary
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