От църквата до музея. По пътя на несебърските икони
From the Church to the Museum. The History of the Nessebar Icons

Summary/Abstract: The transfer of icons from nessebar with the aim of preserving them has started at the end of the 19th century when from the iconostasis of the church of st. Stephen the famous icon of the Virgin Mary with silver repousse cover from the time of King ivan Alexander. After the balkan War when nessebar officially came under the jurisdiction of bishopric of sliven conditions were created for the first general activities undertaken by the state for the preservation of the rich cultural heritage of the city. Commissioned at that time in nessebar was the manager of the department of Mediaeval History Petar Mutafchiev who organized the fortification of churches and he stored in the museum some architectural sculptures as well as some icons. Two of the most large-scale campaigns for the collection of icons from the nessebar churches were undertaken under the leadership of Krastio Mityaev in 1924 and in 1926. regretfully detailed documentation about the exact number of collected at that time icons has not yet been found. the bomb- ing of sofia during the second World War when part of the museum was destroyed could be one of the reasons for the lack of documentation. Destroyed at that time were all of the museums index-boxes. In december 1926 the icons from nessebar were stored in the collection of the Plovdiv national library and Museum. During the following years icons from nessebar were included also in the collection of the Church Museum in Sofia. The best documentation can be found about the icons collected in the national Museum by the restorer Carl Yordanov who was sent to nessebar during the second half of the 1940s to transfer the mural paintings from the almost totally de- stroyed churches in the city.

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