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Plovdiv St. St. Constantine and Helena church

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St. St. Constantine and Helena Orhodox church - old town Plovdiv

St. Constantine and Helena Church is one of the major landmarks in Plovdiv city, Bulgaria’s second biggest city famous for being the host of International Fair Plovdiv. The holy temple is located at 24 Saborna Street in the Old town architectural complex. It was built in the 4th century on the ruins of the antique fortress in the old town of Plovdiv.
St. Constantine and Helena Church is considered the oldest Christian temple in Plovdiv due to its ancient history.

The construction of the sacred temple is closely related to the recognition of Christian Doctrine as a world religion. The Rome Emperor Constantine the Great announced Christianity as an official religion in 313. Citizens of Philipopolis /this is the former name of Plovdiv/ decided to erect a temple in honour of the Emperor and as a sign of appreciation. The place where the holy church is situated was not chosen by accident, but it has symbolic meaning. Originally the church was devoted to St. Severian and Memnos, notable Plovdiv’s citizens. In the pagan period, they were beheaded together with 36 Plovdiv Apostles for their Christian faith.

After the church had been destroyed many times, in 1830 the walls of the temple were in ruins and they had to be torn down and completely rebuilt by the donation of 200 grosha by Todor Moravenov, the chief trustee of the city of Plovdiv. Hence, the church has restored its present appearance in 1830-1832 on the foundations of the oldest Early Christian Church.
The newly built church was one of the biggest for its time – 26m long, 18m wide and 8m high and therefore it was one of the most impressive edifices of its era. The courtyard of the temple is strongly fortified with a stone wall, reaching a height of 8 meters and ending with a heavy brick cornice.

The temple is a great deed of the famous Bratsigovski master, Petko Petkov. The church St.Constantine and Helena is richly decorated with icons of Zahari Zograf, Dimitur Zograph, Nikola Odrinchanin and the prominent Stanislav Dospevski. The renowned icon-painter Zahari Zograf made the entire first row of the altar icons.

One may deem the icon of St.Constantine and Helena the most impressive one in the temple, because it is believed to possess miraculous and healing properties. The worshipper should know, however, that the miraculous icon may help only the true believers.
It is interesting to know that in the 50s of the 20th century, during archaeological excavations, a rectangular tower related to the Hissar Kapia defence as well as an ossuary, holding the remains of generations of notable Plovdiv citizens, were found under the apse of the church.