The "Abbot Dwelling" in the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God, Part of the Rock Hewn Churches of Ivanovo
Evgeni Koev
pp. 45 - 59
Title: The "Abbot Dwelling" in the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God, Part of the Rock Hewn Churches of Ivanovo
Authors: Evgeni Koev

Abstract: The Rock-hewn monastery "The Transfiguration" (Belbernitsa or Berbernitsa), being part of the Rock-hewn churches of Ivanovo, has been well-known for decades. In the recent years it has been carefully studied by members of the spelaeological club "Dervent" and also by students in the School spelaeoclub from the VHT "Dr. Vasil Beron", Veliko Tarnovo. Trying to preserve the rock cultural heritage, apart from the thorough research and description of the monastery, the researcher of the rock sanctuary dealt with the localization, mapping and the description of the westernmost rock cell, which has fragments of murals, reasonably called by him "an abbot dwelling". The monastery cell being object of description is one of the most exemplary in the whole rock complex at the village of Ivanovo, which gives us the reason to emphasize its special function to provide shelter to the highest priest in the monastery hierarchy, the abbot. In this line of thoughts there is also a chance that this same cell has given shelter to the founder of the monastery and its first abbot, Patriarch Joachim I of Tarnovo.

Keywords: The Rock Hewn Churches of Ivanovo, The Rock-hewn monastery "The Transfiguration", Patriarch Joachim I of Tarnovo, The Monastery Cell, Belbernitsa

Received: 01-10-2017     Accepted: 01-12-2017     Published: 01-12-2017

Citation: Koev, E. (2017). The "Abbot Dwelling" in the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God, Part of the Rock Hewn Churches of Ivanovo. Cultural and Historical Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, Digitalization (KIN Journal), 3(1), ISSN 2367-8038, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 45–59