National Revival, 19th c.
Church of the Holy Mother of God
The Church of the Holy Mother of God is an Orthodox church in the Old Town and an important site in Plovdiv's religious, National Revival and civic history.
Story of the place
How to read this place
The Church of the Holy Mother of God crowns the Old Town hill — the place where the liturgy was first sung in Bulgarian and the city declared its break with the Greek church.
- Present church
- 1844
- Belfry
- 1881
- Bulgarian liturgy
- 1860
An ancient hilltop church
A church stood here as early as the 9th century; in 1186 Bishop Constantine Pantehi renovated it and added a monastery, but both were destroyed at the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1371. The present building was raised in 1844 as the city's main church, with donations from the Chalakov brothers and craftsmen from Bratsigovo.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗Revival craftsmanship
The church is a large three-nave pseudo-basilica. Its iconostasis was carved by masters of the Debar school, and most of the icons are the work of Nikola of Odrin. In 1881 the architect Josef Schnitter added a three-storey domed belfry by the western entrance, inscribed “In memory of the liberators.”
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗Where Bulgarian was sung
At Christmas 1859 and on 10 January 1860 Bishop Paisiy celebrated in Bulgarian and publicly announced that his congregation renounced the Greek Patriarch. From then he convened annual Church-and-People councils — from 30 April 1860 until the Bulgarian Exarchate was recognised in 1870.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗Dating
National Revival, 19th c.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗Architect/builder
not identified in the current public source
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗Current status
Active church; current visiting conditions still need verification.
Open map ↗Public Wikidata record
church in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Type
- Eastern Orthodox cathedral
- Status/protection
- monument
- Inception
- 1852
Traces and evidence
-
Description and historical context for Church of the Holy Mother of God.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv ↗ -
Coordinates for Church of the Holy Mother of God.
Source trail: Wikidata — Church of the Holy Mother of God (Q966311) ↗ -
Media and license for Church of the Holy Mother of God: File:St. Bogoroditza plovdiv.jpg.
Source trail: Wikimedia Commons — File:St. Bogoroditza plovdiv.jpg ↗
Current status
Active church; current visiting conditions still need verification.
Ownership, care and institutions
The public record used here does not identify a traceable ownership or management history. This page therefore shows only verified institutional and source links.
Connected people
No people are linked in the current knowledge base.
Visit and orientation
- Coordinates
- 42.14781, 24.75064 · wikidata_coordinate
- Built/date
- National Revival, 19th c.
- Architect/builder
- not identified in the current public source
Full event stream
No separate events are linked to this place.
No separate events are present for this place in the current knowledge base; use the public record, sources and description.
Around this place
No other places are linked through the same events.
No separate archive or then/now record is available for this place yet. The main image, coordinates and sources remain published.