Saint Paraskevi (Parascheva) Church (Plovdiv)

 church, 1830s construction, Bulgarian Orthodox Church

The wide square ends at the cliffs of Dzhambaz tepe below which one can see a small brick-roofed church, done in the architectonic fashion of old – five strides in length and six in breadth – with one altar dedicated to Saint Parascheva, perfect in size for a couple of priests. If we were to imagine this holy site as a circle, with the church in its center, the rocks of the hill would cover three-eighths of the circle, while the churchyard, enclosed with a simple wall, would comprise five-eighths of the whole, featuring the cliffs all the way down to the square.
With these opening lines begins the nineteenth-century description of the ancient church of Saint Parascheva in the account of one eminent intellectual of the National Revival period in Plovdiv, Mr. Konstantin Moravenov.
The history of the church of Saint Parascheva the Virgin-martyr dates back to the Fall of Bulgaria under Turkish yoke and is connected to the story which tradition tells about the stately cathedral, dedicated to Saint Parascheva (Saint Petka) of Epivates, constructed by Tsar Ivan Asen II in Plovdiv in order to commemorate the translation of the relics of the Saint to Tаrnovo in 1238. Having seized Plovdiv in 1371, the Turkish military commander Lala Sahin was so struck by the cathedral that without delay he turned it into a big mosque as a token of his conquest. Thus appeared the Dzhumaya Mosque. The Orthodox Christians were permitted to construct in some other spot a smaller church dedicated to the very same Saint. That spot came to be the cliffed slope of Dhambaz tepe where in all likelihood at that time stood a ninth- or tenth-century Byzantine church.
The present Saint Parascheva Church is built in 1836 thanks to the ktetorship of Hadzhi Valko Chalakov and his relatives and with the financial contributions of local Bulgarians and Greeks, and Bulgarians from the nearby towns and villages. An archive log of the benefactors shows that the Metropolia of Plovdiv in the face of the then-metropolitan Nikiphoros at its head, and also the Bachkovo Monastery, contributed money for the construction of this church.
The Church of Saint Parascheva the Virgin-martyr was consecrated on December 12, 1836.
The icons in the sovereign tier of the iconostasis are painted by Zahari Zograf, while the upper three tiers feature small icons of masters from Tryavna and Edirne. Of particular note is the rare bishop’s throne with its inlaid mother-of-pearl and ivory ornaments.
In the late seventies of the twentieth century the church underwent closure. Its restoration began only in 2007. The church was reconsecrated on December 9, 2007, by His Eminence the Metropolitan of Plovdiv Nicholas.

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