site.btaTwo Churches in Ruse, Another in Giurgiu County Restored Under Joint Bulgarian-Romanian Project

The churches of St. Petka and St. George in Ruse (on the Danube), and the church St. Pantaleon in the Romanian village of Vedia (Giurgiu County) were restored in a joint project funded under the Interreg V-A Romania - Bulgaria 2014 – 2020 cross-border cooperation programme, project manager Svetlin Simeonov said Wednesday. 

About half of the BGN 3.0 million for the project were spent to repair and renovate St. Petka which had been going to ruins for years. Built as a copy of the Round (or Golden) Church in in the medieval Bulgarian capital of Preslav, it was consecrated in 1944. 

The main challenge had been the foundations, project participant Petyo Todorov explained, for the church is built on loess soil and there was a danger of it collapsing. They also reinforced the dome and restored the frescoes, additional funds also having been allocated by the state.

The repairs have been well executed and the frescoes have been restored, Todorov explained. 

A tourist exhibition centre has also been built in the church yard. It will house a museum collection of liturgical utensils and books. It will also house a restored part of the iconostasis that belonged to the All Saints church in Ruse demolished overnight in 1975 by order of the city’s People’s Council.

The frescoes at the St. George church, which keeps a part of the saint’s holy relics, were also restored. Then again, St. Pantaleon in the village of Vedia, Giurgiu County, was also renovated.

Under the project, 15 signposts were placed in Ruse and Giurgiu County, directing tourists to the three restored churches. An information brochure has also been published.