Plovdiv

The house was built in the early XIX century by the merchant Hadzhi Panayot Lampsha. It has had three owners, bu nowadays it bears the name of the last one - the tradesman Luka Balabanov. The houses’s dimensions are impressive with its 546 m² of built area. At present, a permanent exhibition of modern Bulgarian art takes place on the ground floor. The second floor, once having served for a guest hall, features the typical interior of the Revival period. The house serves as a venue of various cultural events – exhibitions, literature premieres, chamber music concerts, theatre performances, meetings, etc. The International Chamber Music Festiva l- Balabanov's House Music Days takes place here annually.

Stepan Hindliyan’s house is one of the few houses in Plovdiv representing the the symmetric design of a typical Revival house. The owner of the house was a merchant and representative of one of the four wealthiest families of Armenian origin in Plovdiv. The walls on the second floor of the house impress with paintings of landscapes from Constantinople, Venice, Alexandria, Stokholm and other cities, all painted by memory. A mirror image of the house can be seen above the door of the storage room in the yard, which serves both as decoration and a blueprint of the house. Many of the cultural events take place in the house every year.

The church St. St. Konstantin and Elena is one of the oldest Christian temples Plovdiv, located right on the wall of the Acropolis in the Old Town. In 304, at the place where the church is located today, 38 martyrs of Plovdiv became victims of persecutions against Christians. According to archaeological researches, the very first Christian temple in the city was built in honor of two the beheaded holy martyrs – the Thracians Severin and Memnos. In the ‘60s of XIX century, a beautiful 13-meter-high bell tower was built, with five floors and two bells. Next to the church, there used to be a parish school, which nowadays operates as an Icon gallery.

The doctor and public official from the National Revival period Dr. Stoyan Chomakov was one of the most active fighters for autonomous Bulgarian Church before the Liberation from Ottoman domination in 1878. The Chomakov's House, built in 1862-1865, is his 'testament' to the future generations of Plovdiv. In terms of its architecture, the Neocalssical style popular at that time, was abandoned. Since 1984 this house has hosted the biggest collection of 72 paintings by the famous Bulgarian artist Zlatyu Boyadzhiev (1903-1976), representing the two periods of his professional life.

Veren Stambolyan’s house, built in the second half of XIX century, is a large two-storey symmetrical building, located on the Eastern slope of Dzhambaz Tepe. Years ago, it used to be a creative center of Union of Bulgarian Artists and Union of Plovdiv Artists. Since May 2010, a permanent exhibition dedicated to the work of the famous Plovdiv’s artist Dimitar Kirov /1935-2008/ has been arranged in the house. Kirov belonged to the generation of Plovdiv artists, who modernized the image of Bulgarian art in the 1960s.

The construction of this residential building started in the middle of the 18th c. It is an asymmetrical two-storey house, which has undergone several refurbishments in the 19th c., the most significant being that from 1817. Up to the present time 2/3 of its original substance have been preserved, for over time it had changed several owners. Of all the Revival period houses in Plovdiv, Klianti House is the oldest and features enthralling interior decoration and unique architecture. The covered yard on the ground level is impressive. The first floor today consists of three rooms and of a spacious hayet with many windows. At the level of the hayet, next to it, a median storage room is built with a height of 1.60 m. It is named himala (meaning "low" in Greek). The ornamentation and decoration on the walls in these two rooms is extremely rich and is matched with preserved wooden elements. The mural paintings are polychrome and include plant ornamentation, bouquets and vases with flowers. The wooden ceilings are adorned with different decorative ornaments, the enclosed wooden recesses (musandras) are painted with bouquets of roses and the doors are richly decorated. On both sides of the alafranga in one of the rooms, unique landscapes from Vienna and Constantinople and the year 1817 were treated and restored.

This is one of the many houses in the Old Town that used to belong to the famous house of Chalakovtsi during the Revival period. Valko and Stoyan Chalakovi were born in Koprivshtitsa, but their left their mark here, in Plovdiv. The churches St. Bogoroditsa and St, Nikolay, which are just next to the house, were built mostly on their donations, as well as the school 'St. St. Kiril and Metodiy'. The bigger brother - Valko, is donator of the Rila Monastery, and was responsible for the schools, churches and hospitals in Plovdiv. The house of Chalakovtsi was restored in 2012 by Assosiation 'Trakia' with the help of volunteers and artists from National School 'Tsanko Lavrenov'. The furniture which can be seen in the house is entirely from the Revival period.

The first records of a church, which was originally buit in honour of Virgin Mary, date back to IX – X century. In 1844 - 45, craftsmen from Bratzigovo constructed an entirely church - a three-nave pseudo-basilica with impressive dimensions. After Stoyan Chalakov took the position of churchwarde,the church was entirely reconstructed. The iconostasis was made by the Debar woodcarvers Andon Stanishev and Dimitar Stanishev in the Empire style and Nikola Odrinchanin created the icons. In 1875 Stanislav Dospevski painted the royal icon of Saint Mary with the Divine Infant by the iconostasis. The hurch was fully restored in 2000.

Armenian Apostolic Church Surp Kevork Surp Kevork Church was originally an Eastern Orthodox Church, dedicated to St. George the Victorious. This is the only church with side compartments besides the central nave: one for women and another for men. Next to the church there was built a chapel. After several reconstructions the church got its present outlook. In front of the church and around it there is a large yard that surrounds the church complex in a rectangular shape. Part of it serves as a school yard from the time it was built in the first three decades of XIX century. The yard on the west side rests on a massive, high stone wall. In the past, the yard was intended for graveyard of prominent and wealthy Armenians from the community, as well as priests and prelates, who had died here. In the churchyard, on the empty spot between the church and the erstwhile Surp Hach church, there is a preserved marble sarcophagus with a rectangular shape.The church tower, probably constructed in the second half of XIX century, was semi-destroyed during the earthquake in 1928. The new tower was built on the same spot in the corner. In the courtyard, in front of Tadey and Parteniy chapel to the west side, near the west staircase, still stands a well, made to the order of a noble Armenian, in memory of his deceased son. The well was built on May 5, 1877. In the northern part of the churchyard is the former building of St. Vartanants – Varavaryan School, with an inscription in Armenian on elliptical marble plaque and the year of its construction in 1894.

After the Edict of Milan in 313 AD in the ancient city of Plovdiv were built an episcopal basilica and residence of the spiritual head of the diocese. The temple, existing in the time after this period, was built probably in V century and existed until the end of VI century when it was destroyed by Slavic invasions. According to studies of these researchers the temple was dedicated to St. Paul. In the middle of XVIII century the church was burned down again. Among the first donors in its recovery were Hadji Andon, Konstantin Mavrudioglu, Costa Atanasov and priest Yani. It was finally completed in 1783 during the time of the Plovdiv Metropolitan Kiril. In 1828 the construction of a new iconostasis for the temple, a pulpit and a canopy for the Holy See started. The woodcarvers who made this were representatives of the Debar carving school. The dome is with polyhedral shape. In the western part of the temple there is an open colonnade – narthex which was inscribed with biblical scenes by painter Nikita Odrinchanin in 1858. The total number of scenes are 29, 24 of which are from the Old Testament. When the construction of the new, bigger temple started, the earlier carved iconostasis was preserved. On the left of the royal doors of the iconostasis was an icon of Virgin Mary with the Divine Infant, and on the right – an icon of Christ the Savior, both painted by Stanislav Dospevski in 1868.Two old places for church singers have octagonal shape and are decorated with encrusted bones and wooden plates. Nowadays, St. Marina is the temple with the biggest number of bells. The church also stores a fraction of the holy relics of Saint Martyr Marina as a sanctuary.