The "Sharena Sol" Association has launched a project to preserve Christian sanctuaries in the border regions of Bulgaria. The project's authors intend to study about 40 churches and chapels in the municipalities of Elhovo and Bolyarovo, which border Turkey. The project includes detailed video recording, digitization, and cataloging of frescoes, icons, church utensils, architectural features of buildings, and archival data.

Project leader Stefan Kamenov reported that all existing Orthodox churches in the two municipalities have already been studied and photographed. Elhovo hosts 19 churches and chapels, while Bolyarovo has 20. The next phase of the work involves categorizing and digitizing the selected objects, which will be included in an artistic photobook of 104 pages.

"Our goal is to ensure that as many people as possible become aware of and can connect with the valuable cultural and historical heritage through the Christian sanctuaries preserved in these areas," Kamenov noted.

While traveling through remote areas, the association's team encountered a variety of church conditions: from ancient, well-maintained churches to dilapidated and abandoned ones. The state of frescoes, icons, and church utensils also varies, from well-preserved to primitively restored.

The association hopes to popularize these little-known places as routes for pilgrimage tourism and to attract the attention of local authorities and the Church to preserve this cultural wealth. In an interview with NetNews, Stefan Kamenov mentioned that the churches in the border region are at various stages of decay. According to him, the condition of the churches reflects modern attitudes towards religion, especially against the backdrop of past decades of atheism and the current return to faith.

There are well-preserved churches with intact icons and frescoes, but there are also extreme cases of churches abandoned and on the verge of collapse. Generally, in villages, churches are in good condition, with old relics such as icons, stone inscriptions, Bibles, and other artifacts preserved. However, there are less successful examples. Sometimes non-professionals undertake the restoration of paintings. "In one of the churches, someone decided to restore the icons themselves. They ended up looking like children's drawings," Kamenov explained. Many are eager to revive the old churches, but not all of them are professional artists. "Not everyone can make a perfect circle or go and accurately draw the eyes of Jesus Christ, for example," emphasized the photographer.

Photo: Stefan Kamenov, project leader of "Christian Sanctuaries"