Biserica „Sfinții 40 de mucenici de la sevastia”, ctitorie și necropolă a dinastiei Vlahe a Asăneștilor, din Munții Haemus. Ideologie politică și tradiție ortodoxă
Church of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste with the Wallachian dynasty of Asen rulers’ burial place in the Haemus Mons. Political ideology and Orthodox tradition

Summary/Abstract: The Asen Kingdom created after the Vlach-Bulgarian uprising in the Haemus Mons (after 26 October 1185) represents the first and only attempt of the eastern Roman world south of the Danube to get organized into a state of Wallachian (Romanian) origin, based on the political tradition of the First Bulgarian Empire. The rulers from the Asen dynasty of Wallachian (Romanian) origin, of which we mention here only Ioanitsa Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II, were called tsars according to the Bulgarian political tradition. The latter, having become a true Balkan sovereign after winning the Battle of Klokotnitsa on March 9, 1230, established imperial hegemony in the region. In honor of the victory in the Battle of Klokotnitsa, won over the Thessalonian emperor Theodore Komnenos, Ivan Asen II built on the banks of the Yantra river, outside the walls of the Tsarevets fortress, an imperial church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. One of the most important monasteries in the capital of the Asen kingdom, Tarnovo, was formed around it. Today this church, which was used as a royal burial place, is a genuine monument of Bulgarian art and culture, preserving undeniable evidence of history. Like any centuries-old monument, this place of worship, now a museum, hides still unknown secrets of the past in its ancient premises.

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