Traveler's Guide
East Macedonia & Thrace
Church center "Klise Basha" (Great Church) - village of Chiflik
You can go directly to the Perperikon complex from there. The church was built using the ancent Roman technique called "opus mixtum". Opus mixtum is an application of a mixture using alternating horizontal bands.The purpose of opus mixtum was to avoid cracks. The use of the special mixture made huge structures more earthquake resistant.
To the east it ends with three apses on the altar area while to the north and south it has bulky semicircular niches. There used to be a massive dome over the central part. The temple has a length of 13.5 meters and a width of 12 meters. The facades of the church are very elegant. Mixed masonry was used for the wall - alternating layers of brick and white stone. They are dynamic with polygonal surfaces, blind arches and two-step niches.The altar is very long and consists of three parts, with entrances between units, as in any room of the altar there is an offering table. There were marble slabs and columns, decorated with floral ornaments. A rare element in the decorative scheme of the church is the use of white clay pottery for the altar wall. It is dotted with ribbons and decorative tiles with complex floral and geometrical ornaments in white, green, blue, black and ochre. The floor of the temple is carefully built of brick tiles.
There is a completely preserved mosaic in the style of "Opus sectile" right in the centre. Opus sectile refers to an art technique popularized in the ancient and medieval Roman world where materials were cut and inlaid into walls and floors to make a picture or pattern.)Alternating red brick, square and triangular white marble blocks were used in various combinations to form a beautiful carpet with highly stylized cross. A huge bronze chandelier with glass night-lights , parts of which were discovered during excavations, hangs down from the high dome above it. The temple beneath Perperikon dates back to the 9th century and very much resembles Constantinople Architecture. North of it, a small chapel with a tomb and ossuary are revealed.A similar chapel might have existed to the south, where there is a rectangular room with an anteroom and a marble tomb under the floor. West and north of the main church, a large secular necropolis has been discovered.More than 100 graves have been examined so far. Most of the dead were laid in neat stone chambers. The rarely used medieval custom of marking graves with stone pillars, carved with crosses, is found here. The findings in the tombs are related mainly to Christian cult.
One finding deserves special attention. It is a small bronze cross, which has two sides locked separately and a cavity was formed in the middle of it. One side depicts a crucifix, and the other - Virgin Mary praying with both hands. These are called engolpion crosses or Palestinian crosses because they were believed to have been brought from holy places. They kept relics in them - relics of saints or pieces of the True Cross. It is assumed that particles by the Holy Cross are retained in the Perprerikon cross. With a solemn procession, these particles have been brought to the newly built monastery "The Assumption of the Virgin" ( " Uspenie Bogorodichno" )in Kardzhali and displayed for worship.
The complex beneath Perperikon was a regional center of the Eastern Rhodopes, or Achridos, as they were called in medieval times. Perhaps the area had a special status and was directly subordinate to the Constantinople. It was an imperial possession, a domain, or if we should use the Byzantine legal terminology, it was a Vasiliki.
It is assumed that the bishops of Achridos had two residential houses. The first is the monastery “ St. Yoan Prodrom” ("St. John the Precursor")in Kardzhali and the second was precisely the complex beneath Perperikon. This is explained by the wealth of the church and the numerous seals found in excavations.
Address
No information available.Contact Information
No information available.
Related
- [Home][CULTURE][RELIGION]
- [NATURE]
- BEACHES
- FORESTS
- WILDLIFE SHELTERS
- CANYONS
- RIVERS
- CAVES
- NATURA
- LAKES
- WATERFALLS
- HOT SPRINGS
- MOUNTAINS
- PARKS
- AGROTOURISM
- ALTERNATIVE
- MUSEUMS
- SIGHTS
- [CONFERENCE ][ACTIVITIES][INFORMATION]
- [ΑCCOMMODATION][FOOD AND DRINK][ΤOURIST SERVICES]
- [POINTS OF INFORMATION][HEALTH][COMMERCE]
- [ENTERTAINMENT]
Privacy Policy
Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights - Responsibility of the Site and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace
The content of this portal has been collected and evaluated by each partner of the project (Region of East Macedonia & Thrace, Regional Administration of Smolyan, Regional administration of Kardzhali και Regional Administration of Haskovo) for the area which each partner represents. Each partner represents each region for the implementation of the Action 3.2 "Content Collection" for the approved applitcation form of JTI - TARGET project under "Greece - Bulgaria 2007 -2013" Interreg Call. The content including images, photos, graphics, texts, textures and in general all the data of the portal is in the responsibility of each partner. The content update and upload of each region belongs to each partner which has also the copyright for those content. This means that the content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Smolyan belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Smolyan. The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Haskovo belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Haskovo, The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Kardzhali belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Kardzhali, The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Region of East Macedonia & Thrace belongs to the Partner Region of East Macedonia & Thrace.
Given the nature and the size of the Internet, under no circumstances, including the case of negligence, will the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace is not responsible for any kind of loss caused to the visitor/user of the pages, services, choices and contents of this portal, which one undertakes at one’s own initiative. The portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not guarantee that the pages, the services, the choices and the contents will be provided non-stop and without errors and that the errors will be corrected, because each content belongs to the Region that belongs. Furthermore, the portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not guarantee that the servers, through which it is made available to users, do not contain “viruses” or other harmful contents. The Region of East Macedonia & Thrace guarantee the correctness, completeness or even the availability of the contents, pages, services, choices or their results only for its Region, not for the other Regions.
Links to other Websites
The Portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not control the availability, the content, the personal data protection policy, the quality and the completeness of the services of other web sites and pages to which it directs users through hyperlinks. Consequently, for any problem arising during their visit/use, the user has to address directly the corresponding web sites and pages, which have the full responsibility for the delivery of their services. The Portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace can under no circumstances be considered to agree with or accept the content or the services of the web sites and the pages to which it directs users or to be associated with them in any way.
Applicable Law and other Conditions
The aforementioned terms and conditions of the use of the Portal, as well as any modification of them, are governed and completed by the Greek law, the law of the European Union and the relevant international treaties (like indicatively and not restrictively the Law 2472/1997 for the protection of the individual and the protection of personal data, as completed by the decisions of the Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Personal Data, the Presidential Decrees 207/1998 and 79/2000 and Article 8 of the Law 2819/2000, as well as the Law 2774/1999 and the European Law (directives 95/46/EC and 97/66/EC). Any provision of the above conditions that becomes opposing to the law, it ceases to apply by right and is removed from the present, without the validity of the remaining conditions being affected in any case. No modification of these conditions will be taken into account and will be part of this agreement, unless it has been officially formulated and incorporated into it.
