Project Type: field school (expedition)
THIS PROJECT IS SUITABLE FOR VOLUNTEERS, SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL OR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE!
Site/s: Three to five medieval Orthodox chapels and small churches
Location: Sofia, the west border regions of Nishava and Kraishte, Bulgaria
Period(s): Medieval: Bulgarian, Byzantine, and Serbian, and Late Medieval period: Ottoman (fourteenth to seventeenth century)
Nearest Air Terminal: Sofia. All participants will be given a lift from and to Sofia airport terminals on arrival and departure day.
Description: This project aims to support the documentation of medieval frescoes preserved in abandoned churches and chapels in remote areas of Western Bulgaria. Their number has permanently decreased due to the lack of effort to preserve them from weather damage. The task of the expedition envisioned for 2009 is to enhance the database created in previous seasons by documenting  the frescoes and their conditions, the objective of all this being the publication of a ‘Corpus of Medieval Frescoes from Western Bulgaria’. The project will include three modules: fieldwork; educational course (lectures, workshops and training); and excursions. The fieldwork will entail database recording, sketching, measuring, and creating a photographic record. There will be specialized lectures, workshops and training in South East European medieval history, Orthodox iconography and fresco restoration, and guided tours of Sofia and Rila Monastery (refer to the field school agenda!). Accommodation for participants will be in/near Sofia – the Bulgarian capital (1,5 million inhabitants) where the main educational activities will also take place. Every-day fieldwork will involve travel to the church sites (app. 60-70 km away from Sofia, transport will be arranged by BH fieldschool). Participation in any further publications may be negotiated. Participants will receive a Balkan Heritage Field School Certificate specifying fieldwork hours, educational modules and sites visited. Academic credits available from the National Academy of Arts – Bulgaria (Ask for details!).

Archaeological and Historical Context: Bulgarian and foreign notables from the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires as well as the Serbian Kingdom (fourteenth century) and local Bulgarian communities under Ottoman rule (the period between the fifteenth and seventeenth century) built the churches and chapels to be visited and studied. This region was at certain times deep in the territory of the Bulgarian Empire (the ninth to early eleventh, and again in the late twelfth to thirteenth centuries) and the Byzantine Empire (the eleventh and twelfth centuries) but in the fourteenth century it became a border area between the two empires and the fast growing Serbian Kingdom. It is one of the few areas where the traditions of all the major Balkan medieval art schools (those in Constantinople, Ohrid, Thessaloniki and Veliko Tarnovo) met. What we see today from the once flourishing medieval Orthodox art in the area are just small chapels and churches that survived the “disastrous” Ottoman invasion in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Many of these monuments characterized by humble architecture often hide exquisite frescoes behind their unattractive exterior. Most of them have been abandoned long ago. There are visible damages due to both hostile acts of Muslims (in the period of Ottoman domination: fifteenth to nineteenth century.) and/or weather conditions ruining them after they were abandoned.

Admission fee: 1299 EUR (app. $1660 but check current exchange rates! ) includes all educational and fieldwork activities, travel to and from the fieldwork sites, accommodation and meals, excursions, sightseeing tours and entrance fees, transfer from and to Sofia airport, medical insurance and administrative costs. 10% discount off the admission fee available in case of:

1. Early registration (before 1 January 2009)
2. Participation in more than 1 BH project or project session in 2009.
3. Participation in any BH project/s in the past.