site.btaZemen Monastery Near Sofia Holds Unique 14th c. Last Supper Fresco

The Zemen Monastery, located just 70 km southwest of Sofia, is dedicated to St. John the Theologian and holds 14th century murals, including an absolutely unique scene of the Last Supper, Zemen Municipality says. The biblical scene was painted by an unknown artist in the cloister’s small church resembling a cube.

Leonardo da Vinci’s unknown predecessor has depicted Jesus Christ twice: once Him giving the bread and the other Him pouring the wine. This “Double Christ” cannot be seen anywhere else, experts say, and that, in addition to the technique, this also makes the mural exceedingly valuable. It is also one of the best preserved murals on site and conservation has helped keep it for generations.

Zemen Monastery’s church is a valuable remnant of medieval times for both Bulgaria and Europe as a whole, for it is one of a few monuments of faith to have remained intact. It has never been destroyed.

The valuable murals, including donor portraits likened to those in the Boyana church, were restored in the 1970s.

Today, the church stands in the way it was built in the 11th century and was decorated in the 14th century. In 1966 it was declared a monument of Bulgarian architecture and art and Zemen monastery was declared a national museum, branch of the National Museum of History, in 2004.