A town has as much history as there have been people who have experiences different emotions under its skies. But there are stories whose words we can decipher by taking a look at the remains of a church, or by closing our eyes and harking to the lapping of the waves in the hope of hearing an echo of an ancient town, long lost in the sea.

Artist Elena Rousseva has chosen to present the town where she was born, Kavarna on the Black Sea, by the churches in its environs. Twenty-five centuries ago, on the spot where there once was an ancient Thracian settlement, Greek settlers founded a colony – Bizone – from which a town sprang up that thrived from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, a town with fortress walls, early Christian basilica, medieval churches, public buildings.

The exhibition is part of this year’s edition of the ancient music, song and dance festival Stravaganza in Kavarna, and it can be seen at the Hristo Gradechliev art gallery.

“There are 13 churches in Kavarna municipality, including the chapels on Cape Kaliakra and in the villages Bozhourets, Neykovo and Kamen Bryag,” Elena Rousseva says. “Some of them are functioning churches, others are yet to open doors to their congregation. The two oldest churches are St. George and Assumption of the Blessed Mother, the most interesting one among them being the Church of the 12 Apostles in Bulgarevo village. The locals know it as the church of Sts. Peter and Paul, but on one of its stones, which dates back to Greek times, a slab was found with its original name. It is probably the oldest church in the region, and is different from the rest, being in a Romanian style. Unfortunately it is not currently a functioning church.”

Church is the place where one finds hope and solace, that is why Elena Rousseva gave her exhibition the name “The temple – power and spirit”. In her works the artist applies the technique of pyrography and stained glass – both are used in the decoration of Christian Orthodox churches.

“During the school year, at our fine arts club at the Stefan Karadzha secondary school in our town, we worked with pyrography, and that is perhaps what prompted me to use this technique,” the artist explains. “As to the use of stained glass, alongside wood, it is part of the interior decoration of Orthodox churches. Iconostases are made of carved wood, and the light seeping through the coloured glass creates a special atmosphere that inspired respect.”

Despite the beauty of her works, Elena Rousseva does not like to call herself an artist, she prefers to express herself through the works of her talented students. “That is the most important way the work of a teacher can be acknowledged,”  she says and adds that some of them – who have gone on to study in Vienna or in Sofia – now work as architects, others are budding painters, still others will be starting their art studies in the autumn. But they all – from their teacher to the youngest of students – get their inspiration from the natural setting of the town with a history going back centuries, the magnificent nature all around, and the most powerful of all elements to an artist – the sea.

“Kavarna is a place where you can touch untamed nature,” Elena Rousseva says. “We have fascinating archaeological finds on Cape Kaliakra, historical monuments like the Hammam and the old water fountains. There is a legend about one of them – the Silver Fountain - according to which the Turkish Sultans would send people to fetch water from that particular water fountain because it had curative properties, but also because it washed away sins. There is a legend about the Hammam as well – that a girl and a boy who were in love found salvation in the flames of the Hammam because the girl’s beauty had bewitched the Sultan.”

The beauty of the churches of Kavarna will also be put on display in the Black Sea city of Varna.

English version: Milena Daynova