Zemen Monastery in Bulgaria

ISBN 9545000899
Author: Mariana Hristova - Trifonova
Printed in: 2003
Pages: 24 pp. , soft cover, size 14.5 x 21 cm
Language: Text in English
Photos: richly illustrated with high quality color photos

The Zemen monastery, named St John the Theologian (St.Ioan Bogoslov), is situated just outside the town of Zemen, about 15km down off the main road from Sofia to the town of Kyustendil and the border checkpoint of Gyeshevo. It is located in a beautiful area in the skirts of the Konyavska mountain, not far away from the Zemen defile in the valley of the Struma river.

The church dates back to the 11th century AC and is one of the few examples of Bulgarian architecture, construction and wall paintings of the Middle Ages that has survived to date. The church, which is currently not functioning, represents a cubic building with a dome made of stone. Visitors are particularly taken by the altar, which de facto represents a massive stone plane, and the floor, which resembles a mosaic of different-coloured pieces of marble and stone, gifted to the church by local people. Yet the frescoes, which cover all inner walls of the church and represent a masterly merger of biblical images and scenes, leave the greatest impression. Most of the wall paintings date back to the 14th century while the image of St Ana is the only one that has survived since the time of the church’s very establishment in the 11th century. The more recent images of St Ivan of Rila, St Kiment of Ohrid, despot Deyan and his wife Doya are also well preserved. The church is declared a national monument of culture while the images of the church donors, Deyan and Doya, are the oldest and most valuable church-donor paintings in Bulgaria, second only to those of Kaloyan and Desislava seen on the walls of the Boyana church.

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Zemen Monastery in Bulgaria