Църквата „Св. Димитър“ във Велико Търново – историко-идеологическа и архитектурна употреба?

Автори:
Страници: 127-156
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/XOYD7352

Резюме:

Since the middle of 19th century, St. Dimitar Church has been the object of numerous descriptions and studies by historians, archeologists, architects, art historians and local patriots. This interest has been mostly sparked by its identification with the temple where in 1885 (1886) two brothers named Petar and Asen declared the breakout of an uprising against the Byzantine rule, which led to the restoration of the Bulgarian state. On the occasion of the event’s 800th anniversary, the church underwent a complete architectural reconstruction. Despite the ‘precise’ dating and thorough archeological exploration, there have been doubts about the historical identification of the church with the brothers’ rebellion and certain criticism for its new architectural design. The current article seeks to answer the question to what extent they are justified and whether the communist management model of conservation and preservation of cultural and historical heritage makes St. Dimitar Church an object of historical, ideological and architectural use.Sources of historical information on the events of 1885 (1886) have been collected and analyzed; so have descriptions, photos and drawings of the church before the 1913 earthquake, which destroyed all of it but its east façade. The excavation work done on site, starting from Mosko Moskov in 1906 and continuing to Yanka Nikolova and Mirko Robov between 1971-1984, has been studied; various hypotheses, articulated through the years, about the architectural plan, date of construction and mural painting of the church are presented. Overall, the opinions about the construction date fall into two groups: most scholars and explorers date it to 1185 (end of 12th C.) and the start of Petar and Asen’s rebellion, while others think that it can’t have been built earlier than the middle of 13th and even 14th C. When analyzing the publications on St. Dimitar Church, some contradictions emerge that lack sound explanation and raise doubts about the church becoming an object of targeted state historical and ideological use in the 70s and 80s of 20th C., when it was fully explored and restored. Among those are: claims about faults and difficulties due to accelerated construction simultaneously with the carefully executed fresco decoration and the rich pictorial façade decoration; almost complete absence of grave goods in the graves revealed in the church’s naos and narthex; insufficient number of coins, which could certainly be used as dating material and refer the church’s construction toward the end of 12th C.; the façade ceramic and painted decoration, which are more typical of 13th and even XIV14th C., etc. Meanwhile, according to Teofil Teofilov, author of the architectural project for restoration of St. Dimitar Church, there is a discrepancy between architectural results and the reconstruction done, which is hypothetical and based more on similar examples. However, the question remains open, because in a protocol from the National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage archive, there is a mention of the apse of an earlier church, discovered east of St. Dimitar Church and only new future excavations would help to resolve it. To conclude in the present moment, communist postulates and that time’s belief about the role of cultural and historical heritage in building a prestigious past and national pride had an impact on the church, making it an example of political, ideological and architectural use of archaeological remains, without diminishing or negating the overall positive results achieved with regard to its exploration and preservation.

Ключови думи:

St. Dimitar Church; restoration; preservation models; cultural and historical heritage; historical-ideological use, architectural use.

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