Church of St Paraskeva
Encyclopedia
The Church of Saint Paraskevi is a partially preserved medieval Eastern Orthodox
church in Nesebar
(medieval Mesembria), a town on the Black Sea
coast of Burgas Province
in eastern Bulgaria
. It was most likely built in the 13th or 14th century and forms part of the Ancient Nesebar UNESCO
World Heritage Site
. The Church of Saint Paraskevi features a single nave and a pentagonal apse as well as rich exterior decoration. Its dome and the belfry surmounting the narthex have not been preserved today, and it is unknown which of the three saints named Paraskevi it was dedicated to.
. Rough Guides
author Jonathan Bousfield attributes its construction to the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
(r. 1331–1371). However, during this period Nesebar changed hands multiple times between the Second Bulgarian Empire
and Byzantium
.
Along with other architectural sites in the old town of Nesebar, the church forms part of the Ancient City of Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria
. It was listed among Bulgaria's monuments of culture of national importance in 1964. It is not an active church today, though it remains in use and houses an art gallery
.
It remains uncertain which of the saints known as Paraskevi the church was dedicated to. Early Christian martyrs Paraskevi of Rome
and Paraskevi of Iconium
were better known in the Byzantine Empire and particularly its capital Constantinople
, though Paraskevi of Epibatos
was more popular in Bulgaria and was recognised by Ivan Alexander as his personal patron. Scholar Bistra Nikolova believes the former two options to be more likely.
cross-in-square
design. It features a narthex
in its western part and a single wide pentagon
al apse
in its eastern section. The church was built out of bricks and smoothed stones and based on a pseudo-opus mixtum
technique which also employed wooden beams. The nave was barrel-vaulted
by two arches.
The church does not include a separate sanctuary in front of the altar, though semicirular niches to the sides of the apse serve as its prothesis
and diaconicon
. The plan of the church also includes several square niches which bear similarity to similar executions in churches in medieval Veliko Tarnovo. The entrance to the church is on the south wall. In the past, the church had a dome
, and its present double-pitched roof was built in more recent times.
The narthex of the church was once topped by calotte and a bell tower
, which has not been preserved today. The tower was accessible via a vaulted stone staircase on the west wall of the church. The belfry is a feature that the Church of Saint Paraskevi shares with other churches in Nesebar, such as the Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel
and the Church of Saint Theodore. Unlike the Church of the Holy Archangels, though, the staircase of the Church of Saint Paraskevi was on the outside, as in the Church of Christ Pantocrator.
Much like other churches in Nesebar dating to the same period, the Church of Saint Paraskevi was lavishly decorated on the outside. The design of the exterior walls includes two rows of richly ornamented blind arch
es. Two rows of eight narrow arches each decorate the north and south walls, with an additional three on the west wall and two on either side of the apse. The lower arcade was larger than the upper one, though both were decorated with archivolt
s composed of three rows of coloured ceramic rosette
s. The lunette
s were built out of stones and bricks in various shapes, including ornamental fish bones, suns, chequered and zigzag patterns.
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
church in Nesebar
Nesebar
Nesebar is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Nesebar Municipality...
(medieval Mesembria), a town on the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast of Burgas Province
Burgas Province
-Municipalities:The Burgas province contains 13 municipalities . The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village , and the population of each as of 2009.-Demography:The Burgas province had a population of 423,608 -Municipalities:The Burgas...
in eastern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. It was most likely built in the 13th or 14th century and forms part of the Ancient Nesebar UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. The Church of Saint Paraskevi features a single nave and a pentagonal apse as well as rich exterior decoration. Its dome and the belfry surmounting the narthex have not been preserved today, and it is unknown which of the three saints named Paraskevi it was dedicated to.
History
The dating of the Church of Saint Paraskevi is disputed. While some researchers ascribe its original construction to the 10th century, it is generally held that it was built in the 13th–14th century. This estimate is based on its architectural similarities to churches of that period in the medieval Bulgarian capital Veliko TarnovoVeliko Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famous as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists...
. Rough Guides
Rough Guides
Rough Guides Ltd is a travel guidebook and reference publisher, owned by Pearson PLC. Their travel titles cover more than 200 destinations, and are distributed worldwide through the Penguin Group...
author Jonathan Bousfield attributes its construction to the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
Ivan Alexander , also known as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on February 17, 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history...
(r. 1331–1371). However, during this period Nesebar changed hands multiple times between the Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
and Byzantium
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
Along with other architectural sites in the old town of Nesebar, the church forms part of the Ancient City of Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria
100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria
"100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria" is a Bulgarian national movement established in 1966 to promote tourism among Bulgaria's most significant cultural, historic, and natural landmarks....
. It was listed among Bulgaria's monuments of culture of national importance in 1964. It is not an active church today, though it remains in use and houses an art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
.
It remains uncertain which of the saints known as Paraskevi the church was dedicated to. Early Christian martyrs Paraskevi of Rome
Paraskevi of Rome
Saint Paraskevi of Rome is venerated as a Christian martyr of the 2nd century. According to Christian tradition, she was born in Rome about 140 AD to parents who were Christians. Her parents, Agathon and Politia, were of Greek origin, and had prayed for many years to have a child...
and Paraskevi of Iconium
Paraskevi of Iconium
Saint Paraskevi of Iconium is venerated as a Christian virgin martyr. According to Christian tradition, she was born to a rich family of Iconium...
were better known in the Byzantine Empire and particularly its capital Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, though Paraskevi of Epibatos
Parascheva of the Balkans
Saint Parascheva of the Balkans was an ascetic female saint of the 11th century...
was more popular in Bulgaria and was recognised by Ivan Alexander as his personal patron. Scholar Bistra Nikolova believes the former two options to be more likely.
Architecture and decoration
The Church of Saint Paraskevi is a single-nave church, measuring 8.45 by 4.85 m (27.7 by 15.9 ft), 14.7 by 6.6 m (48.2 by 21.7 ft) or 15 by 6 m (49.2 by 19.7 ft) and built according to the ByzantineByzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
cross-in-square
Cross-in-square
The term cross-in-square or crossed-dome denotes the dominant architectural form of middle- and late-period Byzantine churches. The first cross-in-square churches were probably built in the late 8th century, and the form has remained in use throughout the Orthodox world until the present day...
design. It features a narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
in its western part and a single wide pentagon
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...
al apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
in its eastern section. The church was built out of bricks and smoothed stones and based on a pseudo-opus mixtum
Opus mixtum
thumb|right|275px|Example of Opus mixtum in the [[Brest Castle]], [[France]].Opus mixtum , or Opus vagecum and Opus compositum, was an ancient Roman construction technique...
technique which also employed wooden beams. The nave was barrel-vaulted
Barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
by two arches.
The church does not include a separate sanctuary in front of the altar, though semicirular niches to the sides of the apse serve as its prothesis
Prothesis (altar)
The Prothesis is the place in the sanctuary in which the Liturgy of Preparation takes place in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches....
and diaconicon
Diaconicon
The Diaconicon is, in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches, the name given to a chamber on the south side of the central apse of the church, where the vestments, books, etc, that are used in the Divine Services of the church are kept .The Diaconicon contains the thalassidion...
. The plan of the church also includes several square niches which bear similarity to similar executions in churches in medieval Veliko Tarnovo. The entrance to the church is on the south wall. In the past, the church had a dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
, and its present double-pitched roof was built in more recent times.
The narthex of the church was once topped by calotte and a bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
, which has not been preserved today. The tower was accessible via a vaulted stone staircase on the west wall of the church. The belfry is a feature that the Church of Saint Paraskevi shares with other churches in Nesebar, such as the Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel
Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel
The Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel is a partially preserved medieval Eastern Orthodox church in the eastern Bulgarian town of Nesebar , on the Black Sea coast of Burgas Province. It was built in the 13th or 14th century and forms part of the Ancient Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage...
and the Church of Saint Theodore. Unlike the Church of the Holy Archangels, though, the staircase of the Church of Saint Paraskevi was on the outside, as in the Church of Christ Pantocrator.
Much like other churches in Nesebar dating to the same period, the Church of Saint Paraskevi was lavishly decorated on the outside. The design of the exterior walls includes two rows of richly ornamented blind arch
Blind arch
A blind arch is an arch found in the wall of a building which has been infilled with solid construction so it cannot serve as a passageway, door, or window. The term is most often associated with masonry wall construction, but is also found in other types of construction such as light frame...
es. Two rows of eight narrow arches each decorate the north and south walls, with an additional three on the west wall and two on either side of the apse. The lower arcade was larger than the upper one, though both were decorated with archivolt
Archivolt
An archivolt is an ornamental molding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental moldings surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the architrave in the case of a rectangular opening...
s composed of three rows of coloured ceramic rosette
Rosette (design)
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity. Appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece...
s. The lunette
Lunette
In architecture, a lunette is a half-moon shaped space, either filled with recessed masonry or void. A lunette is formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at the level of the imposts, where the arch springs. If a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the...
s were built out of stones and bricks in various shapes, including ornamental fish bones, suns, chequered and zigzag patterns.