Samokov

Twenty minutes’ drive from Tsari Mali Grad is the city of Samokov, which is the historical capital of the region north of the Rila Mountains. Samokov is not far from the Borovets ski resort, in the center of a fertile valley and at a crossroads. In the past, it also had a small but important Jewish community.

The city developed in the 16th century as a mining center and became one of the hubs of the Bulgarian revival movement, as well as a vibrant cultural, spiritual, and economic center. In the 19th century, Samokov became a center for the production of iron and copper vessels for the Ottoman Empire. The blowers in the workshops were powered by water wheels driven by the many streams in the area, the mines in the nearby mountains provided the raw materials, and the merchant families in the city (including Jews) traded throughout the Balkans. With Bulgaria becoming independent in 1877, Samokov maintained its position and continued to develop. At that time, a large synagogue was built, which is currently undergoing renovation and reconstruction. The Jewish family that “set the tone” was the Arie family, and today their house is used as an ethnographic museum.

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Samokov was a center of art in the fields of painting and wood sculpture, most of which were done in a religious context. Artists from Samokov became famous throughout the Balkans and decorated many churches in Bulgaria. In fact, there was a unique school of icon painting in Samokov, founded by the townsman Dimitar Zograf, who studied in the monasteries of Mount Athos. A statue of him can be seen at the entrance to the municipal museum, and a gallery of interesting icon paintings can be viewed on the second floor of this museum. The paintings of Dimitar and his colleagues were not limited only to the Christian religious context; they also painted in homes, public institutions, and even synagogues and mosques. Works of the Samokov school of painting can be seen in the abandoned local Bayrakli Mosque, which is part of the museum.

In addition to painting, Samokov had a unique artistic wood carving tradition, and to this day it remains one of the crafts in which the people of the region excel. The wood craftsmen carved the beautiful iconostasis screens that separate the sanctuary from the nave in Orthodox churches, decorating them with thousands of plant motifs, representations of figures, animals, and scenes from the New and Old Testaments. A magnificent iconostasis is found in the Monastery of the Cloak of Mother Mary, which is a nunnery from the 18th century, located in the heart of Samokov and still active today.

The monastery was named after the patron saint of the city—Mary, mother of Jesus—who, according to legend, miraculously saved Samokov. The story goes like this: in the 18th century, a private army of marauding soldiers planned to attack and rob the city, but Mary intervened and covered the entire valley with a thick fog, so that they could not find their way and retraced their steps. In the painting above the entrance to the monastery, Mary is seen putting all the people of Samokov under her cloak.

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