Стенописите от главната църква на Преображенския манастир – история на реставрационните намеси
The murals of the catholicon of the Transfiguration Monastery: Timeline of conservation interventions

Summary/Abstract: Еver since the early twentieth cen- tury, the wall paintings at the catholicon of the Transfiguration monas- tery near Veliko Tarnovo have been subject to a number of corrections, overpaints and conservation works, which have altered their initial appearance to a great extent. As research literature fails to provide information about these interventions, their timeline has been clarified using a number of sources or old photos, found during this research. Tracing out the previous interventions and attempts to preserve the murals in the past are an important starting mate- rial both for the general restoration of the church, which began in 2004, and for the researchers of the cultural heritage of the monastery, being also a significant stage in the history of the preservation of Bulgaria’s cultural heritage. It is well known that it was Zachary Zograph, a most popular icon-painter in the Period of Bulgarian National revival, who painted the catholicon of the Transfiguration monastery in 1849. Their poor condition in the early twentieth century forced the friary to take steps to renew them and Ivan Yonkov, a painter from Triavna was assigned this task in 1906. A devastating earthquake on 1 June 1913 badly damaged the wall paintings at the catholicon. apostol Christov, an icon-painter from the village of Galichnik, Debar district was commissioned to repair them. The first all-round conservation of the murals was led by the National museum of archaeology, Sofia in 1943 and done by museum conservator- restorer Karl Jordanov. New interventions were carried out by a team of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, led by Luba Krasovska in the period 1962–1964. In the early 1970s, interventions were required once again due to the critical condition of the wall paintings and were carried out by a team led by Dragomir Peshev. At the time thorough analyses were made to determine what the pigments and the binder of the paint layers contained.

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