The Village
Squatting on high ground just above Arbanasi's main square is the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (irregular opening hours) - the pair are depicted in a mural above the western portal. Dating from 1600, the church is a solid brick structure adorned with irregular lines of blind arcading, its gloomy interior illuminated by tiny, iron-grilled windows. Local schoolmaster Hristo was called on in the early eighteenth century to execute most of the frescos, including a panoramic Nativity scene in the apse, but look out also for the later Virgin Horanta painted jointly by itinerant masters Georgi of Bucharest and Mihail of Salonika. A cobbled path leads south of the main square towards the asymmetrical, red-tiled roof of the Church of Sveti Dimitar . The original church perished in the earthquake of 1913, and the pale, unweathered stones of its modern reconstruction make it look more like a suburban bungalow than a place of worship. Some of the interior frescos have been restored, and vibrant portraits of the two archangels preside over the adjoining chapel of Sveti Nestor. Richly carved Greek and Bulgarian headstones are propped up against the outer walls. Returning to the village square and taking the main road west brings you to the finest of Arbanasi's mansions, the Kostantsaliev House . Like other dwellings erected after the conflagration that gutted Arbanasi in 1798, the ground floor (with servants' quarters and store-rooms) is built of stone and entered via a nail-studded gate, while the upper floor is made of wood. Many of the rooms have beautiful panelled ceilings and ornate plaster cornices bearing geometric or tulip motifs. However, the luxury didn't extend to any form of plumbing - the two toilets (his and hers) are simply holes in the wooden floor, directly above the garden. It's not hard to imagine the former owner, the Kokona Sultana (a relation of the Bey ), greeting her guests on the wooden staircase that ascends to the reception hall, from which one door leads to the "winter room" or communal bedroom. The other opens onto a corridor leading to the dining room and the office of her merchant husband, furnished with a low table or sofra . Beyond the house lies the Kokona fountain , built in 1786 on the orders of Mehmed Said Ali, author of its Arabic inscription: "He who looks upon me and drinks my water shall possess the light of the eyes and of the soul". Turn left at the fountain to reach the village's most beautifully decorated church, the Church of the Nativity ( Rozhdestvo Hristovo ). Like the others in Arbanasi it's outwardly plain, but inside you'll find richly coloured frescos dating from the seventeenth century. The main entrance leads into a long gallery, its ceiling supported by wooden beams decorated with geometric designs and Greek-language inscriptions. At the far end of the gallery, the chapel of St John the Baptist is richly decorated with images of martyred saints, and divided into separate areas for men and women to pray. The main body of the church, to the right of the gallery, is again divided into male and female sections. The latter is the smaller of the two, notable for a frieze of Greek philosophers along one wall, while the screen dividing the male and female portions bears an extravagantly imagined rendering of the Last Judgement. At the far end of the men's chamber, the gilded iconostasis contains scenes from the Book of Genesis (in which Eden contains a dream-like menagerie of exotic animals), and a boldly colourful pieta .
Your Tip for Arbanasi
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Arbanasi - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Arbanasi - visit the main Arbanasi forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Arbanasi webguide section below! Thanks.
|
