Bulgarian Churches in Turkey

As may have been mentioned previously in this space, the people of Bulgaria have some lingering issues with the borders of Bulgaria.  Namely, the Bulgarians long for days gone by when the borders of the nation empire extended much further than they do today.  The Bulgarians sometimes speak of Bulgaria touching three seas, as its borders formerly reached from the Black Sea on the east to the Aegean Sea on the south and the Adriatic Sea on the southwest.  Now, of course, Bulgaria still touches the Black Sea, but neither of the other two seas.

During the times that the Bulgarian Empire extended much further, the rulers of Bulgaria did their best to spread Slavic culture throughout the land, partially as a way to improve the lives of the people and partially as a way of preventing further infiltration by rival powers.  This is one reason that the Cyrillic alphabet was created.  The Slavic rulers wanted to prevent the people from using and falling in love with the Latin alphabet, which would inevitably lead to the use of the Latin languages, which would probably lead to sympathy for the Catholic Church, which leads to conversion to Catholicism, from which point you can easily be on the slippery slope to becoming a Notre Dame football fan (and no one wants that).   So they commissioned Cyril and his brother Methodius to write a new alphabet.  Cyril may or may not have been the smarter of the two, but he was definitely the better marketer as the alphabet the brothers developed was eventually named after him.  What gets named after Methodius?  Bulgarian dogs, mostly.

Another way that the powers that were tried to keep Bulgarian influence alive throughout the realm was to build churches in newly conquered lands.  On their way back from Istanbul, Anne and Mark had the chance to visit one of these churches.  It was a Bulgarian Orthodox church, but was now located in Turkey.

Top Line: Bulgarska Churkva.  I wonder what that means...

The Church was called St. George's (the bottom word on the sign above is "Georgi" - the 'p' is an 'r', the backward 'n' is an 'i', and the thing that looks like a hangman's noose is a 'g' - simple, right?).  Since it was located in Turkey, it was having some problems with attendance and upkeep.  The guide informed us that the Bulgarian ministry of culture was sending money to Turkey to provide for upkeep of this church.

That's the eye from the back of a dollar bill.

The church was loaded up with icons.  This is pretty standard for Bulgarian Orthodox decor.  The big-shot families donated either the icons or the money to buy the icons when the church was built.  You can see their names on the icons now.

Visting the church with a mix of tourists and native Bulgarians was an interesting experience.  Some of the native Bulgarians lit candles and prayed before certain icons, while the tourists milled about.  This was a little awkward.  But, apparently, Bulgarian Orthodox prayers can be quite short because then the Bulgarians started snapping photos and chatting.

No Stairway?  Denied!

One interesting aspect of the church for westerners is the layout.  First, this was a very, very small church.  It went up several levels, but the floor space in the main hall was minimal.  Second, there were no pews.  There were a few things that could be chairs, but they had icons lined up behind them - some of which looked very old and breakable.  It was not clear whether these were for sitting in.  In any case, there were no more than 30 places to sit.  Apparently, the Bulgarian Orthodox ceremonies involve a bit of standing.  Another interesting part of the building is shown in the photo above.  This is the closest thing Anne and Mark say to a pulpit or lectern.  It was not clear whether this structure, which looked to be glued- not nailed- to the column, would be able to support the weight of a Bulgarian Orthodox priest.  The final difference that struck Anne and Mark was that there really was no altar.  There were several places to light candles, but no altar.

After touring this church, Anne and Mark journeyed into the town and had lunch before crossing the border and finishing the return trip to Blagoevgrad.  While in the city they some thing that they usually do not see, as well as some things that they see everyday.  Guess which is which...