За венценосните ктитори на Бачковския манастир
About the Crowned Donators of Bačkovo Monastery

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the donations of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and of the Bulgarian Tsar John Alexander to the Bačkovo Monastery. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the church “Holy Archangels” was build in 1114 by Alexios I Komnenos in commemoration of Gregory Pakourianos, the founder of the Bačkovo Monastery, in connection with the anti-heretical activities of the emperor against Paulicians and Bogomils in the region of Plovdiv. In 1344 Tsar John Alexander concurred some territories around Plovdiv and in the Rodopae mountain. In order to strengthen his power in the recently occupied lands, he made donations to the Bačkovo Monastery. Changes were made in the monastic ossuary and in the “Holy Archangels” church . The icon “Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel” dedicated to the patrons of the church, now stored in the Department of Old Bulgarian Art (“The Crypt”) of the National Art Gallery, also dates back to this time.

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