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The Medieval Church in Dobarsko, near Bansko, Bulgaria

Village of Dobarsko, 20 km north of Bansko

Dobarsko is a small mountain village, situated in the Valley of Razlog, South-West Bulgaria, 20 km north of Bansko and 70 km from the regional centre – the city of Blagoevgrad. Nestled amidst the southernmost slopes of Rila Maountain, it boasts inspiring panoramic views to the neighboring Pirin and Rhodope Mountains. The average altitude of the village is over 1000 m. The name "Dobarsko" was first mentioned in a charter of the medieval Bulgarian Tsar (Emperor) Ivan Shishman (last quarter of the 14th century), given to the nearby Rilski Monastery. It states that Dobarsko is one of the villages granted by the Bulgarian tsar (emperor) to the monastery. It seems that Dobarsko was founded even earlier. A local legend says that a part of the 15.000 soldiers of the Bulgarian Tsar/Emperor Samuil, blinded by the victorious Byzantine emperor Basil II after the battle at Kleidion (1014) settled here and founded the village. They treated their aching blinded eyes with water from the medicinal spring in the courtyard of the local medieval church, dedicated to Sts. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat. The 17th-century wall paintings of the church depict scenes from this legend, which proves that the legend itself has existed at least since the 17th century.

In the first centuries after the Bulgarian lands were occupied by the Ottoman Empire (the end of the 14th century) Dobarsko became an important economical centre of the surrounding region. The local merchants traded with cattle and cotton bought from the Aegean port cities. They distributed these goods in the entire Ottoman Empire and even exported them as far as the central European cities of Vienna and Budapest. The decline of Dobarsko began in the 18th century when the nearby town of Bansko took its role of leading regional trading and economical centre.

The construction of the present-day Church of Sts. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat began in the time when Dobarsko lived its economical bloom. It was completed in 1614 by the local Bulgarian workmen Stanko, Smilen and Spas, who were depicted in one of the central wall paintings together with the main church-donors: Bogdan, Hassiya and Spas. The church was built half sunken in the ground of a mountain slope, without a dome and a belfry. The purpose was the church to look just like an ordinary house from the outside. This was made according to the orders of the governing Ottoman conquerors, which did not allow the construction of large and tall Christian temples. Most probably on the site existed an earlier medieval church. The evidence for the above can be the older marble plate, built in the floor of the church and depicting a two-headed eagle. Furthermore, the church was built in the time when the Ottoman orders allowing construction of new Christian temples only on the sites of older ones were strictly observed.

The Church of Sts. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat has the architectural plan of a three-naved basilica with length 8.4 m and width 5.2 m. It is built of hand-worked local ashlar with leveling lines of bricks welded together by mortar - the typical building traditions in the period of the late Middle Ages on the Balkans.

In spite of the modest size and the tumble-down exteriors the builders accented on the extremely wealthy interior decoration of the temple. The well-preserved wall paintings strike with exquisiteness and refinement. They are the main reason this small church to be added to the most precious examples of the Bulgarian medieval art. In the 1970s the wall paintings were entirely cleaned and restored. The Church of Sts. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat in Dobarsko is included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sights.