Location: 3 km (2 mi) Southwest of Zemen Map
Tel. (077) 413 131
Open: 9am- 5:30pm Mon- Wed, Fri- Sun
Established: 11th century
Zemen Monastery is a medieval Bulgarian Eastern
Orthodox monastery lost in the Bulgarian wilderness. It is located 3
km (2 mi) South- West of a town of Zemen, hence the name. Zemen
Monastery is a Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox religious complex
dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. It was found in the 11th
century by a small groupf of monks who settled the North- East
slopes of Konyavska mountain in the beginning of the Zemen Gorge.
Zemen Monastery stands 1 km South- East of the town of Zemen near
Pernik on the left bank of the Struma river.
Zemen Monastery
is modest in size. Its complex consists of a main church, a bell
tower and two building that served as living quarters for the monks.
The main church of the Zemen Monastery is the most remarkable part
of the complex and is declared as a cultural monument. It dates back
to the 11th century. it measures 9.2 meters in length, 8.7 meters in
width with a total height of 11.2 meters. Frescoes in the main
church of Zemen Monastery date back to the 14th century. Unusual
feature of the church is that besides saints and Biblical scenes it
depicts portraits of medieval people who helped the Zemen Monastery
financially or just by providing their manual labor on a site.
Besides some of the stories that told in paintings reflect
apocryphal or non- canonic interpretations of some of the events in
the New Testament. It is currently a cultural museum in the
possession of the government. No monks live in Zemen Monastery
currently.
Location
The monastery is located on one of the
northeastern slopes of the Konyavska Mountain, at the beginning of
the Zemen Gorge, on the left bank of the Struma River. It is located
about 1 km southeast of the town of Zemen, Zemen municipality,
Pernik district - one of the smallest towns in Bulgaria.
Architecture
It consists of a church, a bell tower and two
buildings. The monastery is not one of the largest and is currently
not inhabited by monks.
The most remarkable is the oldest
building of the monastery: the church, which is a cultural monument.
In terms of architecture, it occupies a special place in the Balkans
as a representative of cross-domed architecture.
The temple
dates back to the founding of the monastery in the 11th century and
is a simple cubic room with dimensions: length 9.18 m; width 8.71 m;
height 7 meters (11.20 with dome). It is built with well-carved
travertine blocks, connected with mortar solder.
The frescoes
from the first layer of painting date back to the second half of the
11th century. The popularity of the monument is due not only to the
interesting architectural solution, but also to the remarkable
frescoes with biblical scenes from the 14th century. The altar is a
stone monolith, and the floor is made of multicolored stone slabs
and antique bricks. The dome is made of stone and rises on a high
cylindrical drum.
In the southwest corner of the church are
preserved six donor portraits, among them an unknown local feudal
lord and his wife Doya - one of the earliest portraits of Bulgarian
boyars and with the greatest artistic value after the images of
Sevastocrator Kaloyan and Desislava from the Boyana Church.
It is remarkable that the monastery monastery collapsed and was
rebuilt several times, and the church with the frescoes has survived
for more than 9 centuries. Studies of the monastery archives show
that the church was fortified in 1830 and 1860. In 1867, master
Milenko Velev from the village of Blateshnitsa built the first
monastery building, consecrated on May 20 (the day of St. John the
Theologian) by Metropolitan Ignatius of Kyustendil. Since then, on
this day every year is held the traditional spring festival to
celebrate the saint. At the beginning of the 20th century, priest
Yanaki Mitov built the new monastery building, two-storey and 40
meters long.
Restoration work was carried out in the 1970s.
On March 5, 1966, the Zemen Church was declared a monument of
Bulgarian architecture and painting, and the Zemen Monastery - a
national museum, which became a branch of the National History
Museum in 2004.