Since the opening of the St. Visarion of Smolyan Church on July 2 this year, the town has turned into the spiritual hub of the Rhodope Mountains. The church itself is one of the region's landmarks and is remarkable not only for its imposing architecture, but also for the incessant stream of people, who cross its threshold every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Christians from far and wide come here on the big holidays to attend the services.
"Thirty-seven baptismal and fifteen wedding ceremonies have been carried out in the church since the opening," says Father Dimitar Mihaylov. His working schedule is full for weeks to come. People from Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Varna and Haskovo come to the church to enter in matrimony or to have their children baptized.
Lawyer Todor Batkov, founder of the church, donated a unique icon with a silver and gold repousse cover to the church in 2002, at the turning of its first sod. The icon was brought from the Holy Sepulchre, where the idea of building a church in Bulgaria occurred to him.
The Batkovs also donated the eleven church bells, which could be heard across the town on each Christian holiday.
The walls of the interior chapel Saint Theodor Tyron will soon be decorated with beautiful mural paintings. Father Mihaylov hopes that the decoration will start on Mr Batkov's fiftieth birthday. After the mural paintings are ready, the Batkovs will donate to the church icons from their special family collection, which will be exhibited in the crypt. Each of the icons has a certificate of authenticity and the oldest one dates back to the 18th century.
A week ago, the Regional Library of Smolyan donated one hundred and fifty volumes of theological and ecclesiastical literature to the church.

Shtilyana Chakurova, StandartNews