Portal:Bulgarian Empire/Selected article/10

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The Architecture of the Tarnovo Artistic School is a definition for the development of architecture during the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396). In the 13th and 14th centuries the capital Tarnovo determined the progress of the Bulgarian Architecture with many edifices preserved or reconstructed which show the skills of the Medieval Bulgarian architects and the construction and decorative techniques they used. With its diverse architecture, the Tarnovo School may be separated to several branched according to the function of the buildings.

The churches were usually small. Typical of the Tarnovo School of Architecture were relatively small cruciform dome churches or basilicas. At the expense of their small length and width, the churches rose to height. The churches were richly painted with colourful frescoes and from the outside they had beautiful decorative ornaments.

During the Second Empire the fortresses were usually built on locations which were difficult to access (hills or plateaus) and thus they sharply differed from the monumental construction in the north-east of the country from the period of the First Bulgarian Empire. The walls of the fortresses were built from stones welded together with plaster; they had two faces and the space between them was filled with a mixture of gravel and plaster (blockage). A wooden scaffolding was built from the inside which protected the walls from collapse until the blockage dried up. The height and thickness of the walls varied depending on the terrain and in the different parts of one castle complex they could vary. The top of the walls and the towers had pinnacles. Counterforts were used as additional protection from landslip