Christ Pantocrator
Church of Christ Pantocrator
The Church of Christ Pantocrator (Bulgarian: църква „Христос Пантократор“, tsarkva „Hristos Pantokrator“ or църква „Христос Вседържател“, tsarkva „Hristos Vsedarzhatel“) is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church in the eastern Bulgarian town of Nesebar (medieval Mesembria), on the Black Sea coast of Burgas Province. Part of the Ancient Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Church of Christ Pantocrator was constructed in the 13th–14th century and is best known for its lavish exterior decoration. The church, today an art gallery, survives largely intact and is among Bulgaria's best preserved churches of the Middle Ages.
The Church of Christ Pantocrator is usually dated to the late 13th or early 14th
century. University of Pennsylvania scholar Robert G. Ousterhout places its
construction in the mid-14th century. Rough Guides author Jonathan Bousfield
attributes its building to the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria (r.
1331–1371), though during this time control of Nesebar changed many times
between the Second Bulgarian Empire and Byzantium. The church is dedicated to
Christ Pantocrator, a name of God which hails him as the "Ruler of All" in
Greek.
The church is located on Mesembria Street, near the entrance to Nesebar's old
town. Nowadays, it houses an art gallery which exhibits works by Bulgarian
artists. As it belongs to the old town of Nesebar, the Church of Christ
Pantocrator forms part of the Ancient City of Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site
and the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria. Since 1927, it has been under state
protection as a "national antiquity", and it was listed among Bulgaria's
monuments of culture of national importance in 1964.
The church is designed in late Byzantine cross-in-square style. It was
constructed from stones and brickwork, a construction technique known as opus
mixtum, and measures 16 by 6.90 metres (52 × 22.64 ft), 16 by 6.70 metres (52 ×
21.98 ft), or 14.20 by 4.80 metres (46.6 × 15.7 ft), depending on the source.
The walls of the church are 0.80 metres (2.6 ft) thick. The color of the bricks
gives the church a ruddy appearance.
The church features a narthex and a cella (or "naos") with an essentially
rectangular elongated plan. The narthex is small, but has a medieval tomb
underneath it. There are four entrances to the church: two accessing the cella
from the south and west, and another two for the narthex from the west and
north. The apse of the church has three small parts which overlap each other to
form a single, larger unit. The prothesis and diaconicon of the church are
located by the apse.
The dome, octagonal in shape, stands prominently on top of the centre of the
cella. It was supported by four now-destroyed columns which were located
directly beneath it. The integrated bell tower has been built on top of the
narthex, as was customary in contemporary Byzantine church architecture, and
extends from the rectangular main structure. The bell tower was originally
rectangular, though it is now partially ruined. It was reached from the south by
means of a stone staircase.
The best-known feature of the Church of Christ Pantocrator is the rich and
colourful decoration of its exterior walls. The most lavishly decorated part of
the church is the east side with the apse, and as a whole all sides of the
church exhibit different ornamentation. Interchanging strips of three or four
rows of bricks and carved stones, which create an optical pattern, are the most
basic type of decoration used. Rows of blind arches, four-leaved floral motifs,
triangular ornaments, circular turquoise ceramics and brick swastika friezes run
along the east wall. Ousterhout likens the appearance of the church's
superimposed arcades to an aqueduct; an earlier example of that configuration
can be observed in the Cappadocian church of Çanlı Kilise near Aksaray, Turkey.
The inclusion of swastikas in the decoration is considered unusual and curious
to tourists. It is explained by the medieval use of the swastika as a symbol of
the Sun.
The decoration of the elongated north and south walls includes brick blind
arches in the bottom part and a large arch for each wall adjacent to the dome
with a columned window in the middle. There are windows above the lower arches
of the north and south facade. The dome, which also exhibits a large number of
ornamental details and ceramics, features eight windows, one for each of its
sides. The medieval frescoes which were painted on the interior walls of the
church have been only fragmentarily preserved.
Text from Wikipedia
