Някои нови данни от проучването на църквата „Св. Петка“ в Брезник
Some New Research Findings at the Church of St Petka, Breznik

Summary/Abstract: The exploration of the Church of St Petka in Breznik under the project Corpus of Church Murals from the First Half of the Nineteenth Century established a number of new facts, which, due to the chronological boundaries and the structure of the entries, were not included in the study. Many new findings related to the spiritual life of the region were revealed during the study of the extant liturgical books. It transpired that more than forty books were kept in the church library; twentyone of them are early printed volumes. Five more books should be added to this list, which are stored in the Breznik History Museum. Many of the drawings and notes in these books have not been published, and the information from others has not always been presented comprehensively and correctly. In the first part of the text, notes are reviewed, which reveal the links between Breznik, the Chilandar metochion in Sofia, and the Zograph Monastery. An attempt has been made to highlight the role of taxidiotes in the distribution of liturgical books across the region. The second part of the study examines the drawings in the books that have escaped the notice of researchers for a variety of reasons. These drawings were made by two authors. The first one is priest Dimitar Stoyanov, whose are also many of the notes of the second half of the nineteenth century. Although a self-taught iconographer, he experimented also in mural painting and at the age of 73 painted several images at the chapel in his house. The second author can be identified as Yanachko Stanimirov, given the similarities in the style. A note from a Euchologion (Trebnik, 1755), where one of his drawings is preserved, indicates that the book has belonged to priest Anachko from Pishtane village. The names and similarities in the style suggest that iconographer Yanachko Stanimirov and priest Anachko were the same person. Drawing on the previous studies on his work as a 434 painter and the new findings, we offer some changes in his biography. He was arguably born in the area of Breznik, where his earliest works are to be witnessed: the Church of St Petka in Breznik (1838, 1841) and the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the village of Rezhantsi (1842); after his stints as a teacher and iconographer, he returned to his native lands in the 1850s and became a priest. It seems that he received his education in Breznik or at the nearby Bilintsi Monastery, where he had the opportunity to use the rich church libraries. His interest in history, expressed in a unique way in the annalistic inscription in the fresco from the church in the village of Tuden, Godech region, was in all likelihood sparked by the numerous annalistic notes in the liturgical books at the church in Breznik.

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