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Bulgarian icons can boast of a thousand year's history. Bulgaria was the first of the Slav peoples to adopt Christianity from Byzantium as her official religion in 865 in the reign of Tsar Boris I. Since then the Bulgarian icon, a symbol of the Christian cult and church ritual, has developed as a fundamental part of the art of the country from the ninth century through the present day. In 1393 the Bulgarian State was destroyed by the Ottoman invasion of Europe and the Bulgarian lands were included within the borders of the enormous Empire. From that time up to the liberation in 1878, the Bulgarian Church and art were deprived of the support and maintenance of the state authorities and the Church of its own Patriarchy. In the years of foreign national and foreign religious domination, the icon was the transcendental link with the cultural traditions of the past and with the former grandeur of the mediaeval Mount Athos. For the enslaved Balkan Christian peoples, religion was the consolidating factor in saving them from the assimilative policy of the conquerors. The Bulgarian monasteries and churches were centuries of enlightenment and culture. Brilliant examples of medieval literature and art were preserved in them and original new literary and iconographic works were created. Under the yoke the Bulgarian Church was the only public institution which, besides fulfilling its religious mission, carried out educational and cultural functions, inculcating patriotism and national feelings - all that which maintained the Bulgarian nationality through the centuries of trial. The Church was the Bulgarians' link with other Eastern Orthodox peoples and with European Christianity in their resistance to the Islamic invasion.

Because of a number of historical circumstances and the degeneration of the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century, when Europe discovered the New World, an economic upsurge began in the Bulgarian towns and commercial relations were established with Europe. The economic and commercial upsurge gave a spur to the development of culture. The sound links with classism and the strict dogmatic of mediaeval times and of the Mount Athos monasteries made the icon of the seventeenth century bear the first pre-Revival features in that didactic and strictly canonized art. Iconography was imbued with Italo-Cretan influence and the powerful impact of West European baroque, without losing its original identity.

Like the Italian and European Renaissance, although somewhat later, in the eighteenth century there were established national schools of art in some of the prosperous areas and towns in the Bulgarian lands, such as Samokov, Tryavna, Bansko and the Strandzha - Thracian schools- all with their own style characteristics and several generations of artists. It was these artists who transformed the strictly didactic painting into vital lifelike art. In the nineteenth century the icon, conditionally subject to tradition, to the doctrinaire pattern, turned to reality. The harsh, severe tones gave way to bright, gay colors. It was influenced by the ideas of the new times, by the Weltanschauung of the Renaissance and enlightenment, by European culture. At the time when the Ribniyat Boukvar (the first Bulgarian ABC text-book) was published, the Bulgarian icon painters were involved in the fate of their people, carried away by the new revolutionary ideas of the West and they themselves took part in the struggle for the independence of the Church and for political freedom. The figurative language of art was turned into an active factor for preserving literacy, the national culture and the national spirit. In the struggle for national self-assertion, the importance of the Church rose to such a degree that Vassil Levsky began his life in the service of the Church and has remained in history as the "Deacon". His cruel fate as a professional revolutionary forced him to seek shelter many times in the monasteries of the Balkan Range, where there were specially prepared hiding-places for him. The Bulgarian Church devotedly served the cause to save the nation, for its revival and for its triumph.

Bulgarian iconography left deep traces in the general development of the art of the other Eastern Orthodox peoples. Icons were painted for many of the churches of the monasteries in Mount Athos and the most remote parts of the South-West Balkans. An outstanding achievement of a small gifted nation, of its refined sensibility and artistic taste, Bulgarian icon painting takes a well-deserved place in European cultural history.

The Bulgarian icon is the revelation of the Bulgarian people, revealing the purest aspects of their spiritual feelings to the world. It is their window to the world of goodness and faith, of the eternal striving of the human spirit towards perfection and freedom.

	St. Elijah's Ascension and Three Scenes from His Life; 1850; the Church of St. Diameter in the village of Teshevo, Bansko region; painted by Diameter Morel; Bansko school; tempera on wood; 127 x 84 cm.
	The Virgin Eleusa; 1874; painted by Stanislav Dospevski; Samokov school, tempera on wood; 29.5 x 21 cm, National History Museum, invt. No 29903.
	St. Nicholas; 1895, the Church of St. George, the village of Sestrimo, Pazardjik region; painted by Borislav Dospevski; Samokov school, tempera on wood, oil; 86 x 63 cm., National History Museum, invt. No in RTS. 1457.
	The Ascension; early 19 century; the church of Cyril and Methodius in the village of Gabrovnitsa, Pazardjik region; painted by Christo Dimitrov; Samokov school; tempera on wood; 43 x 31 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 4919.
	St Modest; 1860-les, the church in the village of Maiki Voden, lvailovgrad region; Strandja school; tempera on wood; 90 x 63 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 32917.
	The Virgin Hodegetria, 1840-ies; the Church of St. George in the village of Dripchevo, Ilaskovo region; icon-painter Peter Minjov from Tryavna, Tryavna school, tempera on wood; 127 x 92 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 7416.
	The Nativity; 1870, the church in the village of Srem, Yambol region; Strandja school; tempera on wood; 95 x 70 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 16018.
	St. George on Horseback and Twelve Scenes from His Life; 1840-ies, the Church of St. George in the village of Dripchevo, Haskovo region; Tryavna school, tempera on wood; 134 x 86.5 cm., National History Museum. invt. No 16015.
	The Virgin Enthroned; 17th century from Seststrmo, Pazardjik district; tempera on wood, 81.5x52 cm; National History Museum, invt. No in RTS 1444.
	The Virgin Eleusa; early 19 century; the Church of the Blessed Virgin at the Karloukovo Monastery; painted by Christo Dimitrov; Samokov school; tempera on wood; 105 x 70 cm., National History Museum, invt. No 991.