This one's for Ian

Categories: uncategorized, god, politics

Date: 01 July 2012 18:45:31

One of the most frequent repliers to this blog, in fact the most frequent responder is Ian, writer of the blog Travelling ... Somewhere, Somehow.

Ian has spoken about painting (or should that be writing) icons. Anyone interested in icons needs to visit Nesebar on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria.

[caption id="attachment_743" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Nesebar Peninsula"][/caption]

Built on a peninsula, which was originally an island before the roadway connecting it to the mainland was built, Nesebar survived better than most places rule by the Ottoman Turks. Easily defended, Nesebar was where the Bulgarian Orthodox retreated under Turkish rule.

One consequence of this is that the Old Town of Nesebar is a centre of icon painting. It still is, icon painting still goes on there, you can watch them being made, buy them, even commission them. In the Architectural Museum there is a room in the basement, a large room, given over only to historical icons. One icon of the empty tomb, dating back to Ottoman times, has the sleeping soldiers at the empty tomb in contemporary Turkish uniforms. Icons can be political as well as spiritual.

The strange thing is the number of churches, empty churches in various states of disrepair. Not that they were ever all used at once. Instead of rebuilding on the same site, the Bulgarians built a new one. Over centuries this means that for a small island there are a lot of church buildings, some in ruins (but floodlit) and some put to other uses, such as art galleries.

There is a church in use. I took no pictures not to disturb those going there to pray. But it is beautiful. The walls are sky blue, with icons painted in to the plaster at the top of every column. The whole building is one large icon. Even a cynical Evangelical like myself, who isn't supposed to like these things was impressed.

Ian, next time you venture to the top side of the world, put Nesebar in your travel plans.