Opening of the Mission Gallery with the Exhibition “Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics of the Balkans"
August 13 - September 13, 2021
Opening: August 13, 11 a.m.
Mission Gallery, 2 Alfred Nobel Str., Sofia
The official opening of the renovated Mission Gallery at the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs will take place on August 13 (Friday) at 11 a.m. with a new poster exhibition "Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics of the Balkans" - part of the mobile exhibitions of the State Institute for Culture for the purposes of cultural diplomacy.
The exhibition "Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics of the Balkans" is a new visual project presenting emblematic Bulgarian icons, on which the State Institute for Culture has been working on together with a team of medieval researchers from the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Prof. Ivan Duychev" at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". The icons are one of the emblems of Orthodoxy and an integral part of the decoration of the Christian church since ancient times. In 24 panels (in Bulgarian and English) are shown churches and monasteries, which store miraculous icons and holy relics as precious relics. The exhibition uses photos from the archives of the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Prof. Ivan Duychev", as well as photos provided with the kind assistance of the abbots of the Rila, Bachkovo, Troyan and Bigorski monasteries.
The history of each monastery, the legendary biography of each miraculous icon and the customs associated with the temple holidays and the festivals of the saints, whose relics are kept in them, are briefly described. Before the eyes of the visitors of the exhibition, a kind of narrative unfolds, which builds a bridge over the centuries and presents the challenge of living faith through miraculous images and their power, not subject to time, ideologies, theories, and philosophies.
The concept, in addition to a number of Bulgarian monasteries, includes photos and valuable information from Vatopedi Monastery and Iversky Monastery - Greece, Studenitsa Monastery - Serbia, Savina Monastery - Montenegro, Monastery "St. John Vladimir" near Elbasan - Albania, Bigorski Monastery - Northern Macedonia.