Church "St. Petka Iconium-Samardji"

In the ideal center of Sofia, at the crossroads of two boulevards - Boulevard A. Dondukov-Korsakov, smoothly passing into Blvd. Todor Alexandrov and Knight's Boulevard Maria Luiza, there is a very interesting church. In Bulgarian it is called "Tsarkva" Sveta Petka Samardjyska. "

To be perfectly accurate, this church is in the underground passage to the metro station "Serdika" - only its red tile roof sticks out above the boulevards. In the middle of the last century, they wanted to demolish it, to put it crudely into asphalt, so that there was a direct central avenue on this place, but indifferent people defended this monument of architecture. For a long time it was closed, then a museum was set up in it, and then the Bulgarian Orthodox Church got permission to make the church of Sveta Petka Samardjyska an active church. And now there are services and you can put a candle.

The church is very unusual - all that is visible from the outside is the remains of a once quite large structure. The upper part dates from the 11th century AD, and the lower one - the crypt, through which you can now enter the church, is a Roman tomb of the 4th century. There are even preserved sarcophagi.

Thus it turns out that the church is on the second floor. Inside, it is very interesting: there are no new frescoes, the best preserved frescoes date back to the sixteenth century.

The church is dedicated to St. Petka of Iconium. Samardjiyskoy her nickname for the fact that in ancient times around this church lived Samardzhitsy - masters making saddles, and they revered Petka Ikonijskaya her patroness.

The entrance to the church is free, but you can go to the crypt and go upstairs, you can only ask permission from the attendant.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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All photos in this blog are taken by me unless otherwise attributed.

With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova

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