Poganovo Monastery

The monastery Poganovo (Cyrillic Манастир Поганово ) is now a Serbian Orthodox monastery, located in southeastern Serbia. The women's monastery dedicated to St. Jovan Bogoslov ( Engl. Apostle John ). The monastery is located in a tributary of the river Jerma, about a kilometer south of the border town of Dimitrovgrad, near the Bulgarian border.

History

As founder ( Ktitor ) of the monastery is considered the Duke Constantine Dragaš who built the monastery at the end of the 14th century. After the death of Constantine Dragaš, after the Battle of Rovine, his daughter Helena Paliologos, wife of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos took over the supervision of the monastery. From 1871, the Monastery of the Bulgarian church was managed and renewed to Bulgaria the so-called Bulgarian western regions in 1919 was forced to cede to Serbia. 1895 described the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov, the monastery and the area.

Architecture

The abbey church was created as a true dome type with Trikonchos and Narthexkuppel an early monument of the Morava school, or the Tarnovo School and after 1371. The facade is designed with the characteristic of the style of the Renaissance Palailogischen ornamental architectural decoration.

The plan and elevation of the nave cross-domed churches of Poganovo matches the architecture of the simple foundations of the Balkan peninsula in the middle and second half of the 14th century in the style of the Morava school. ( Other typical predecessor aisled cruciform domed churches but without the Trikonchos are also in the School of Tarnovo, the cross-domed churches in the kingdom of Tsar Stefan Dušan (especially Sv. Nikola in the Archangel Monastery and Marko Kraljevićs Markov Manastir Foundation to find). The exposed- stone of the monastery church has by the variable component of its design a vibrant three dimensional effect on the ( narthex ) is emphasized as the highest component and a achtwandigen drum-like cupola of a square tower over the porch.

The established between hewn limestone still cautious used in Poganovo Brick belts are typical contemporary elements that is characterized by a partly exuberant joy of playful ornamentation on the façade design for the Byzantine architecture of the 14th century. However, the simple ornamental decoration of the facade of the abbey church remains in scope and sophistication back the costly simultaneous start-ups in the Morava Serbia, Thessaloniki or the older churches of Nessebar far.

Frescoes

Inside frescoes are preserved by the decoration of the church from 1499. The similarity of the painting with the 60 km eastern Kremikovtsi Monastery is brought by some researchers with the same master in conjunction. However, speaking different shapes and lighting design for other artists. The composition " The Betrayal of Judas " is not new, but shows no other work of Bulgarian painting from this period is a representation of the same subject with so many realistic -conceived and reproduced movements. Figures such as Jesus Christ and Judas in this picture could also come from painters of the Italian Renaissance. For the representation of the saint Ivan Rilski for the Bulgarian mural is characteristic.

Icons

From the monastery are known several famous icons, but the most famous is that of the " Madonna with Saint John the Evangelist " (also under the name Poganowo icon known) which is now in the collection of icons in the crypt of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia. A copy of the icon can be found, however, inside the church