Църквата „Св. Неделя“ (1832) в Пловдив въз основа на гръцките епиграфски свидетелства
Two studies on the art and history of the nineteenth-century Black sea littoral

Summary/Abstract: In this article twenty-nine Greek inscriptions, dating back to the first quarter of the 18th till the third quarter of the 19th century, which come from the church of St Kyriake (Nedelya) in Plovdiv (Philippoupolis) or refer to it, are presented. These inscriptions, preserved on portable icons, paper, metal and marble, are grouped in categories - ktetors inscriptions (4), dedicatory inscriptions (15), grave inscriptions (8) and inscriptions with the name of the painter (2). They give valuable information about the Metropolis of Philippopolis and its clergy, as well as about the society of the town, including secular persons – donors, painters, deceased persons, and merchants’ guilds. More precisely the presented members of the ecclesiastical circle in the inscriptions are the metropolitan of Philippopolis Nicephorus of Lesbos (1824-1850) and the hieromonk hadji Cyril of Bachkovo (†1851). The secular persons, among which donors of icons and metal work, appear from the first quarter of the 18th century to the second quarter of the 19th century - anonymous orthodox Christians of Philippopolis, some couples with their children – Vlasios and Rali, Panayiotis and Smaragda, Georgakis and Mariola, Valko Тchalukov and Elisavet, Ioannis and Smaragda, the couple Konstantinos and Melahro, someone Peyo and the Zafeiriadis brothers. The painters, referring to the Greek inscriptions, are three of the third quarter of the 19th century – Stefanos Antoniadis, Dimitrios and Stefanos Adrianoupolitis, known also as Stefan Zografina or Stefan Antonov. The main painter of the iconostasis’s icons, who is not signed in the inscriptions, undoubtedly according to the style of painting, is Dimitar Hristov Zograf from Samokov, along with his brother Zaharij Zograf. The deceased persons, buried in the yard of the church from the second to the third quarter of the 19th century are the parents of Artritsa Panayotou, Milahro hadji Iovani, Manouil and Teofano, Georgios Papasaoul, hadji Iomade annis Konstantinou Tiutious, Lambros Petrou Kazisis and Maria Athanasiou, Zhelyo D. Boyadzis, and Christos. The inscriptions give as well information about four merchants guilds during the second and the third quarter of the 19th century – the guilds of gardeners, of goldsmiths, of makers of woolen textile “tsoha” and of sellers of textile.

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