The Elenska Basilica or Elensko Basilica (, Elenska bazilika) is a large partially preserved late Roman Empire (early Byzantine Empire) Christianity basilica in west central Bulgaria. Dating to the 5th–6th century AD, it lies northeast of Pirdop and from Anton, on the right bank of the Elenska River (Еленска река, Elenska reka) in the Zlatitsa–Pirdop Valley. The initially domeless basilica, which features thick walls and defensive towers, had a dome added in the mid-6th century, during the reign of Justinian I. The church was ruined in the early 18th century, during the Ottoman Empire rule of Bulgaria.
Architecture
Archaeologists have clearly distinguished two separate building periods based on the basilica's ruins. The Elenska Basilica's middle and western sections are older and constructed out of
brick and crushed stones, whereas the more recent eastern section was built out of homogeneous bricks with thick
joined using red mortar. Analysis of the church's ruins, which are up to in height,
has established that it was a three-
basilica. The church's dimensions were . It featured a large
apse in the centre, flanked by two smaller apses. The middle nave was divided into two squares by four identical columns. The
narthex, which lay in the church's western section, accommodated a
diaconicon and a prothesis. A
baptisterium was located in the church's southern section.
A wide defensive wall surrounded the church. Four rectangular defensive towers were located in each corner of the wall.
The towers were almost identical in size and measured around . The defensive wall is thought to have been tall.
History
The Elensko area where the church is located (and which was the basis for its name) was known to have been inhabited in antiquity by a
Thracians tribe, who around the 6th–5th century BC joined the
Bessi state. Thracologist
Alexander Fol links the area's name (which he derives from the Bulgarian word елен
elen, "
deer") to an ancient legend about a deer who would descend from the
Balkan Mountains on the same day every year to be
animal sacrifice by the natives.
Indeed, plenty of deer remains have been unearthed in the vicinity of the basilica. Another theory derives the name of the area from the Bulgarianized name of the Greeks, елини
elini ("Hellenes"), explained by the church's construction in the early Byzantine period.
The Elenska Basilica was in active use during the Second Bulgarian Empire (11th–14th century) as a literary centre and an Eastern Orthodox monastery. A 13th-century literary work in Middle Bulgarian, the Pirdop Acts of the Apostles, may have been authored there, as a legend says it was discovered in the church's ruins in the 19th century. It remained in use until around 1700, when the local Ottoman Army under Yahya Pasha are thought to have purposefully destroyed it during a military campaign. The Ottomans reportedly bombarded the church with cannons and set it ablaze because they regarded the monks as rebellious.
The earliest archaeological research on the Elenska Basilica dates to the 1890s, when local teachers explored the ruins. Archaeologist Petar Mutafchiev conducted excavations in 1913 and published his findings in the article The Elenska Basilica in the vicinity of Pirdop. The church has only been slightly reconstructed since then. The basilica's ruins are in a satisfactory and stable condition, though the surrounding defensive wall has been mostly destroyed.