Нови епиграфски паметници от Боянската църква
New Epigraphic Monuments from the Boyana Church

Summary/Abstract: This article examines newly discovered, not yet published epigraphic monuments from the St. Nikola and St. Panteleymon Church in Boyana. In the course of restorative work on its western faзade during the spring of 2008, an inscription, an autograph and several drawings were discovered. An inscription was discovered to the right of the door, whose location and execution in charcoal unambiguously confirms the hypothesis that it is an autograph by Vasilie – a participant in the wall painting process. The question of whether he was the principal icon painter for the Boyana Church remains open. The faзade also contains drawings of a lion and a horse, as well as images of an elderly man with a beard and a young boy, which are preliminary sketches or more likely hand exercises before beginning work on the church. During the removal of the late wall painting layer in the niche of the western faзade, a wall painting from the middle of the 13th century was discovered, which is part of the painting covering the western faзade. It represents Christ’s baptism and is accompanied by lines from Matthew 3:17 and explanatory inscriptions about the scene and Christ. A graffito was carved into a marble block in the lower portion of the Southern faзade wall of the Boyana Church, signed by an unknown Iliya, written in a sure hand with graphics characteristic of the 13th and 14th centuries. In the center of the same wall on one of the stones in the masonry, a drawing is visible, which is most likely a sketch of the plan of the church. This makes clear part of the working process of painting the church, as it shows a rarely found working plan for the construction of the church.

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