Medieval Church Built by Crusaders Still Stands in NW Village of Vladimirovo but Badly Needs Repair

Filip Pavlov, BTA correspondent Tsvetomir Tsvetkov

Catholic church built by crusaders in the 15th century still stands in the NW village of Vladimirovo (BTA Photo/Tsvetomir Tsvetkov)

Vladimirovo, Northeastern Bulgaria,

12.08.2024 17:25

(BTA)

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LOCAL FOCUS

In the village of Vladimirovo in the northwestern Montana Region, a Catholic church and an Orthodox church, both named after St. Nicholas, stand next to one another in the same courtyard. The Catholic church was built in 1422-1423 by crusaders who had suffered a defeat in their bid to drive out the Ottoman invaders from the Bulgarian lands.

In those days, a colony of wounded French soldiers, most of whom survived and recovered after the wars, settled in the village of Preslavitsa and built their own church. Texts from the Bible inscribed on the church walls in Latin, have nearly faded out. Only the heavy stone crosses in the courtyard and inside the church have remined intact. Today, the church is a monument of culture but is slowly crumbling away.

For the last 25 years, the two churches have been maintained by a village volunteer, Valentin Valkov. A former military man, he has now dedicated his life to faith and the maintenance of the two churches. 70-80 years ago, the Catholic church was painted and minor repairs were done, which is why today the church looks good from afar, but up close one can see that the walls are cracked and the plaster has fallen off. The situation is much worse on the inside where the walls and ceilings have grown big cracks and doors and windows have broken, Valkov told BTA.

Thanks to donations made in the last 20 years, Valkov has been able to build a fence for the two churches and renew some of the inventory in the Orthodox church. He dreams of finding a way to restore the Catholic church to its original form and to tell visitors about the time it was built.

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