Church of the Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Izvor is one of the 37 churches of the Diocese of Vranje. The church is abandoned today, as is the village of Izvor, which according to the 2011 census has only 61 inhabitants. The parish priest from nearby Bosilegrad only visited her for the Holy Trinity holiday. The church is located four kilometers northeast of the town of Bosilegrad, along the border with the Republic of Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Rudina. It is bordered on all sides by mountains. The church was built in the period from 1834 to 1836. Part of the archive was burned in 1919 by the Bulgarians, part was looted during and after the Second World War. During the communist era of the 1950s, some of the exterior frescoes were painted over. When the then commander of the military watchtower went blind in the immediate vicinity of the church, it was forbidden to paint icons on his orders, and then the destruction of sexual icons was stopped. The Church of the Holy Trinity is one of the largest churches in Southern Serbia. This imposing Orthodox church was built between 1834-1836. The story of obtaining a permit for the construction of the temple from the Turkish Porte is connected to the construction of this temple. At the request of the locals to build a church, the Turkish authorities responded, of course, with ridicule, they agreed to build a temple whose surface would be like the skin of the biggest bull. Ingenious locals cut the skin into thin strips and thus created the surface of the largest temple in the South of Serbia. Today, the Church of the Holy Trinity covers 800 m2. The beginnings of education in this area are also connected to the construction of this temple. In the very yard of the church, there is a building that was officially the first educational institution in this area. The church is a single-nave building with an open narthex on the west and an apse on the east. The inner surface of the church is 760 square meters, and the outer 820 square meters. The church has a dome above the narthex in which the bell is placed. The interior of the temple is very beautiful with imposing iconography and frescoes painted with walls and facade. It was painted by the best icon painters of Zogaraf from the 19th century, Georgije Dimitrov and then his students. During 2013, extensive work began on the rehabilitation of the church, with the joint engagement of the Serbian and Bulgarian authorities.