Description: The field trip is a preparatory stage for two consequent expeditions: “Fresco-Hunting” photo expedition to medieval churches of Eastern Serbia and PELEA Orthodox Chant-Hunting Expedition.

“Fresco-Hunting” photo expedition to medieval churches in Western Bulgaria is a well known project of Balkan Heritage - aiming to documenting as many medieval frescoes as possible from abandoned churches and chapels in remote areas of Western Bulgaria (their numbers have permanently decreased due to the lack of effort to preserve them from weather and damages of time). Balkan Heritage has been creating a large database with prospective to publish ‘Corpus of Medieval Frescoes from Western Bulgaria’ in English. Considering that:

1. In the Middle Ages present-day Western Bulgaria was a part of a broader cultural region in the Central Balkans, including present-day Eastern and Southern Serbia as well as Northern Macedonia;
2. Condition of many ecclesiastic monuments in the areas tackled is also far from perfect;
3. Publications on these monuments are scarce, almost inaccessible from the neighboring countries and rarely translated into any of the international languages

Balkan Heritage team has decided to expand these expeditions, first to Eastern and Southern Serbia and then, to Northern Macedonia.

For more than 25 years, the „PELEA” Musical-Archeographic Expedition by the National High School for Ancient Languages and Cultures „Konstantin Kiril Filosof” Sofia, Bulgaria (established and led by Liudmila Dobrinova (1932 – 2008), has collected more than 2600 records of unique Orthodox chants from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. The records, interviews and documents create a unique archive, that reveals hidden musical treasures of the Balkans. The PELEA team envisioned Serbia as the next Orthodox country to be explored in the near future, but Balkan Heritage's proposal for joint preparatory field trip enhanced the project and resulted in the planning of a joint preparatory field trip.

PAX ORTHODOXA 2009 field trip envisions study visits to 20-25 medieval Orthodox chapels, churches and monasteries as well as to some museums and archaeological sites in Eastern Serbia (refer to the field trip agenda!) - it is open for the first time to international participants. The group will travel by BH car/van. The tasks are:

• to select monuments that might be included in the following “Fresco-hunting” photo expedition;
• to identify possible “chant-keepers” (monks, priests, village people, church books, audio records etc.);
  
• to identify possible partners of both expeditions among local stake-holders (from the Orthodox church, the local government, museums, NGOs etc.);
• to collect additional information about the monuments’ histories and local ecclesiastic musical traditions through interviewing locals, buying books, and copying texts that are available at local libraries.

The BH team speaks English, but all activities in the local, non-English speaking environment will be supported by translation. On the first day of the project participants will attend orientation-, training- and planning panels. Hotel accommodation is available in Sofia and some Serbian towns, accommodation for the rest of the trip will be in tents. Participants will receive the Balkan Heritage Field School Certificate of Attendance.

Cultural Context: Serbian, Bulgarian and foreign notables (before the fifteenth century) and local communities under Ottoman rule (in the period between the fifteenth and seventeenth century) built the churches, monasteries and chapels to be visited. In the Middle ages, the region of present-day Eastern Serbia was part of: the Byzantine Empire (before 809, and in 1018 - 1185), the Bulgarian Empire (809-1018 and 1185-1330's), the Serbian Kingdom (1330's - 1381 and in the beginning of fifteenth century), then it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire (1381-1878). It is one of the few regions, where the traditions of all the major Balkan medieval art schools (those in Constantinople, Ohrid, Veliko Tarnovo, Morava and Thessaloniki) met in the same place. The highlands and mountains of the region gave shelter to many post-medieval Orthodox monastic communities escaping Ottoman repression. There is evidence that they kept many medieval artifacts and traditions intact until twentieth and even twenty-first century (and possibly still have some hidden medieval chants ).

Project directors: Ivan Vasilev, Nayden Prahov – BH Field School

Dates: 3 -14 October 2009

Application Deadline: 15 August, 2009

Minimum length of stay for participants: 12 days

Minimum age: 19

Number of places available: 5

Language: English

Special requirements: Basic skills in documental photography and relevant academic background/or deep interest in the fine arts, art history, archeology, restoration, music, theology or architecture. All participants will be asked to bring their personal photo cameras and to prepare for the field trip by reading some recommended books and articles in advance.