Talk:Church of the Holy Trinity, Svishtov

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Did You Know An entry from Church of the Holy Trinity, Svishtov appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 30 September 2006.
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[edit] "broke the Orthodox architectural canon"?

... What, exactly does that mean? Is this an actual set of rules, or is this statement simply saying it was unlike other Orthodox churches? JDoorjam Talk 16:41, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

There are certain architectural rules that Orthodox churches have to obey, which stem AFAIK from the Byzantine tradition. At least in Bulgaria they have historically been quite strictly observed, that's why the church is notable as one of the first examples of somewhat more liberal elements in the design. Orthodox churches are quite diverse in terms of style, but this one and several other works of Nikola Fichev and Gencho Kanev mark the beginning of a new period in Bulgarian church architecture, which was until then almost entirely Byzantine-like and very traditional.
To sum up, it's both to an extent unlike other (older) Bulgarian churches, especially the bell tower, and it somehow violated the canon (an actual set of rules), which would have been regarded as a terrible mistake prior to the Bulgarian National Revival, but was (and is) perceived as innovation and creativity today.
In particular, the rule it broke was that the apse has to be small and sticked to the east facade. Todor→Bozhinov 17:01, 30 September 2006 (UTC)