Passage to Eastern Europe: Arbanasi, Bulgaria I (8/19/2021)

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all passengers were required to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, we were tested daily. We were required to wear masks on the ship, except in our own stateroom and when actually eating or drinking.

After a short sail across the Danube River, we arrived at Russe, Bulgaria. The included shore excursion was a 100u-km/60-mile motorcoach ride to the towns of Arbanasi and Veliko Târnovo.

Беленски мост/Belenski Bridge (1865-1867, by
Kolyu Ficheto) over the Yantra River near Byala, Bulgaria

The landscape was flat cropland of wheat and sunflowers

In Арбанаси/Arbanasi, we first had a coffee break at the Хотел Извора/Hotel Izvora "resort."

Хотел Извора/Hotel Izvora "resort" with
open and closed dining areas

Banitsa/cheese pastry with Bulgarian mountain tea
(i.e., it's herbal!)

The resort had a variety of small farm
animals, but these small tortoises were the most
popular; note the young man in the yellow shirt -
when a Viking staff member has a day off,
he has the option of accompanying an excursion

These appear to be Testudo hermanni hermanni/
Western Hermann's Tortoise

Tamiko on a swing, with dancers in regional attire
in the background (KSS)

Dry masonry wall (KSS)

Църква Рождество Христово/Church of the Nativity
(15-17C) is "plain as a barn" on the outside to hide
that it is a church from the attention of the Ottomans;
it may the the oldest church in the village which has many

Graves in the church cemetery are
of the church clergy (KSS)

Painting over the portal

Entering the main church, it is astounding
to see the wealth of painted surfaces;
essentially it is the Scriptures in pictures,
dating back to 1597

Iconostasis/wall of icons separates the
nave from the chancel, this one is actually
from another church and was cut to size

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the oldest of the Slavic Orthodox Churches. Christianity was brought to the Balkans by the apostles Paul and Andrew in the first century CE. Located between the Pope of the Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bulgaria was eventually granted an archbishopric under the Orthodox Church. Yet this meant a Greek liturgy offered by Byzantine clergy. The ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire welcomed the arrival of disciples of Sts Cyril and Methodius, and asked that future Bulgarian clergy be taught the Glagolitic (precursor of the Cyrillic) alphabet and the Slavonic liturgy prepared by Cyril. By 893 CE, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was established.

Congregants always stand in Orthodox churches ...

Painting detail (KSS)

Rare depiction of Christ as a child

Rare depiction of the Trinity
in a vertical line

Dormition of Mary, with a "hater" below the body
having his hands cut off by the Archangel [Michael]
before he can topple the funeral bier

Over the main church door is a scene of
the Nativity, thus the name of the church;
in Orthodox churches, Mary often seems
to be in a birthing bed for the Nativity

In the outer or women's church, paintings date back to 1638:

Part of the Judgment Day scene where
those condemned to hell fall immediately
into a red river flowing straight
into the mouth of a monster (KSS)

The Tree of Jesse (the family tree of Christ)
with Jesus at the very top in white

The Chapel of St John the Baptist

In the gallery is a rare depiction of the
Circle of Life with the sun in the center,
encircled by four red dots of the compass
between which are representations of the
seasons, the rays separate the twelve months
and signs of the zodiac, while in the green ring
starting at 7 o'clock is a baby and the figure
grows to adulthood clockwise then shrinks in
in old age down to 6 o'clock where if he did not
live a good life he slips into the jaws of hell

Whew!

Next: Arbanasi II.