Pirgowa Tower
Coordinates: 42 ° 16 '51.5 " N , 22 ° 41' 33.2" O The Pirgowa tower ( Bulgarian Пиргова кула / Pirgowa Kula) is a medieval tower , Donjon in Bulgaria . It is located in the city of Kyustendil in the southwest of the country and is an architectural and artistic cultural monument of national importance.
location
The Pirgowa Tower is located on K. Tsonev Street, next to the old Roman thermal baths in the center of Kyustendil, about 90 km southwest of the Bulgarian capital Sofia . The Ahmed Bey Mosque , the Ottoman Hammām Tschifte Banja , and the archaeological and historical museums of the city of Kyustendil are nearby .
Building history
The name of the tower is derived from the Greek word for tower - Πύργος (pirgos), dt. Tower, castle, fortress. Exact dating was not carried out. In the scientific literature, however, a period between the middle, end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century is mentioned. Jordan Ivanov connects the construction of the tower with the construction of the fortifications of Vidin . The tower was built in the tradition of the fortification architecture of the Second Bulgarian Empire (→ Tarnowo School ). However, it differs from other defensive towers preserved in the region, including the Chreljo Tower in the Rila Monastery . At that time the region was fought over between the Bulgarian, Serbian and Byzantine empires . At the end of the 14th century, the independent despotate Welbashd under Konstantin Dragaš was formed in the southwest of the Bulgarian territories .
The construction of the tower is related to the region's increasing need for security during this era. The tower has an almost square floor plan: 8.25 x 8.35 m and is 15 m high. It has a ground floor and 3 floors. The walls are 1.4 m thick on the ground floor, which was used as storage, and 1.1 m thick on the first two floors. The walls of the upper floor are 80 cm thick.
The tower was built from small blocks and bricks with a length of 25 cm and a width of 4 cm and mortar. The bricks were mainly used near the window openings and corners. The material used to build the tower came from the nearby Roman baths.
literature
- Drewsisowa-Neltschinowa / Slokoska: Археологически паметници от Кюстендилски окръг, Sofia, 1978, p. 22
- Jordan Ivanov : "Северна Македония". Sofia, 1906, p. 164
- Енциклопедичен речник КЮСТЕНДИЛ А-Я, Sofia, 1988, Verlag BAN, p. 511
- Lyuben Tonew : Кули и камбанарии в България до Освобождението. Sofia, 1952, pp. 5ff
Web links
- List of monuments in the Kyustendil municipality ( memento of July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Bulgarian and English)