BYZANTINE CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES CONVERTED INTO MOSQUES

St. Sophia is open every day and can be visited at any time; in Ramazan, only in the forenoon. Entrance by the north porch. Admission (paid when entering) 5 piastres per head. The galleries are closed to the public.

St. Sophia, called Ayiah Sofia by the Turks, was originally a basilica with a wooden roof, and was first built by Constantine the Great in 326 A.D. ; it was named by him the Church of St. Sophia (Holy Wisdom), but either because the original edifice was found to be too small, or because it was still unfinished, it was rebuilt of wood in 358 A.D. by the son and successor of Constantine, and consecrated and inaugurated with great pomp by Eudoxius the Arian, then Bishop of Constantinople, on the 15th of February 360 A.D. Forty-four years later, on the 20th June 404 A.D., in the reign of the Emperor Arcadius, the part of the building containing the altar and pulpit, together with the roof, was destroyed by fire during the riots caused by the unjust exile of St. John Chrysostom. The church was restored by Theodosius II., and a vaulted roof was added under the superintendence of Kufinus Magister; but it was again destroyed by fire in 532 in the reign of Justinian, during the horrible riot called the Nika riot, from the watchword used by those taking part in it. Justinian, then at the summit of his power and glory, resolved to rebuild the church in such a manner as to make it eclipse all former attempts in magnificence, grandeur, and size.

Anthemius of Tralles

For this purpose he ordered the best materials and the best workmen to be got together from all parts of his empire, and the new building was commenced forty days after the destruction of the old one, and was completed in five years, ten months and two days by the architects Anthemius of Tralles (Aidin), Isidorus of Miletus, and Ignatius Magister. The dedicatory and inaugural ceremony took place on the 25th December 537 A.D. Twenty years later, the eastern half-dome and the main dome fell in, crushing the altar and pulpits to pieces in their fall. Justinian had the church restored again by the architect Isidorus the younger, a nephew of Isidorus Magister, and the second inauguration took place on the 24th December 562 A.D.; but the restoration caused the edifice to lose much of its former airiness private istanbul tour, its increased solidity having entailed a corresponding amount of bulkiness. It is said that in the re-erection of St. Sophia a hundred architects were employed, each having a hundred workmen under him.

Of these, five thousand worked on the right side, and five thousand on the left side of the building, each of the two sets vying with the other as to which should be first to complete its task, and encouraged by the Emperor, who, turning superstition to account to stimulate the efforts of the workmen, caused it to be known that the plan of the church had been divulged to him in a dream by an angel; and that visions disclosed to him whence to procure the costly materials and art treasures for the building and decoration of the church; while the solution of any architectural difficulties was also ascribed to the agency of the angels. In a word, superstition was the prime factor in the rebuilding of St. Sophia, and clings to the building down to the present day, as is evinced by the numerous traditions handed down ; a favourite one being that this whilom church is haunted every Easter Eve by a chorus of angels, whose chanting is audible to those of the pious who may happen to be in the building at the time; and not only Greeks, but Muhammadans also, are to be found who aver that they themselves have heard the angelic chorus perform!

The cost of rebuilding St. Sophia is estimated to have amounted to what would be equivalent to a million sterling, an immense sum in those days, and proved such a drain upon the imperial exchequer that, according to Procopius, to meet the expense of construction, Justinian had to stop the salaries of all government officials, and even those of masters of public schools, as well as the pay of his troops, and divert the money thus obtained to the further-ance of his pet scheme.

Along Slaveykov Street

Along Slaveykov Street there are several Revival houses connected with Petko R. Slaveykov’s stay in Plovdiv in 1881 – 1883, when Plovdiv was the capital Eastern Ru- malia. He lived in the asymmetrical Revival house of Bedros Basmajyan, now housing the Home of the Teacher and bearing the name of the great public figure, poet and writer. Close by is the so-called Slaveyk- ov School, established in the distinguished- looking house of Georgi Panchev, where Petko Slaveykov taught. Another place is Slaveykov Cafe or Georgi Moraliyata’s Tavern frequented by the elderly teacher for his morning coffee. At the corner of Kiril Nektariev and Architect Hristo Peev Streets there stands an asymmetrical house from the end of the 18th c. the home for many years of the renowned artist Georgi Dan- chov Zografina.

He was a revolutionary, an associate of Vasil Levski’s, an exile in Anatolia and a volunteer in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War. The house has been recently reconstructed by the Chamber of Crafts in Koblents – Germany and now houses a vocational school. At the upper end of Dr. St. Chomakov Street is the home of the first mayor of Plovdiv after the Liberation, Atanas Samokovets bulgaria private tours, a prominent public and political figure, brother of the Revival artist Stanislav Dospevski.

Artin Gidikov

The corner of Artin Gidikov and 4th January Streets is occupied by the entirely renovated large symmetrical house of Artin Gidikov, an Armenian social figure and benefactor to Armenians and Bulgarians alike. On Saborna Sreet opposite the imposing building of the Girls’ Secondary School there is a memorial plaque reading that the Russian Consulate lay on this site before the Liberation. It was headed in 1957 – 1877 by the Revival figure and man of letters Naiden Gerov and on several occasions visited by Vasil Levski. A very small section of the historic consulate has survived to our time.

One of the most remarkable historic buildings in the Old Town is the Yellow School, called thus because of the colour of its walls. Actually this is the first Bulgarian secondary school to be opened in Plovdiv in 1868, a successor to the well-established diocesan SS. Cyril and Methodius School. The solid building was designed and erected by the well-known Bratsigovo master-builder Todor Dimov. The school is two-storey with an elevated ground floor and sparingly decorated but dignified facades.

On the corner of the building on Tsar Ivaylo and T.Samodumov Streets stand the well-preserved inscriptions in Bulgarian and Osmanli Turkish engraved on a commemorative tablet stating that ‘this public secondary school’ was built in 1868 by the good will of Sultan Abdul Azzis Khan. The yellow school or the SS. Cyril and Methodius First Bulgarian Secondary School is unique in Bulgaria for being still used as an educational establishment. It houses the folklore department of the Music Academy in Plovdiv.