"The church is extremely valuable and its value lies not only in its size, but rather in its history, in the fact that it has existed in this place as a center of the Bulgarian nation, faith and the spirit of our people for several hundred years", says the hierarchal vicar of the Pazardzhik spiritual district, Boyan Kochev. 

"For the Bulgarian people of that time, it was unthinkable to live somewhere where there was no house of God. The Bulgarians, our ancestors, began to build a church at the same time as their burned-down homes. This is a church built out of suffering. They even mortgaged their own property, everything they had, in order to take out the largest loan of tens of thousands of gold coins from the Vienna Bank until then.

"It was made over several years by masters from the Debar woodcarving school", continues Father Boyan in a special interview for Radio Bulgaria. "There is a large presence of animal life, various plants that symbolize the Garden of Eden, to remind us that a cherub with a flaming sword no longer stands at its door, and the way there is open. 

Cherubim, angels, prophets, various birds, wolves, lions, and even an elephant are also sculpted in great detail. And among the exquisite figures one can see griffins, winged sphinxes and dragons, symbolizing the heavenly kingdom, different from the earthly one that we see. It is no coincidence that the iconostasis is recognized as an exceptional achievement of woodcarving not only in Bulgaria, but also on the Balkan Peninsula.

The decoration was expensive and lasted decades after the construction of the church. The leaders of Pazardzhik and the trustees of the church attracted the best stonemasons, builders, master woodcarvers, icon painters and sculptors, and ordinary people got involved not only with money. The bishop's throne reminds us of their voluntary self-sacrifice:

And another rarity can be seen in the church "Assumption of the Theotokos" in the town of Pazardzhik - perhaps the only grave of a bishop in a church in Bulgaria.

"This is the grave of Bishop Dionysius who served here until his death in 1825. The people of Pazardzhik remember and know him, he was a great awakener and promoter of enlightenment, who was the first to begin holding the church service in the Bulgarian language, and opened the first secular school in the city. And when they buried him in the chapel "Holy Archangels", which is located in the temple, they observed the ancient tradition of burying bishops in a sitting position in a built-up tomb. During the atheist regime, the grave was desecrated, the body was taken out and hidden, but small fragments of it remained, which were placed in the recently restored grave. The seat on which his body was placed to sit and the bricks with which it was built are clearly visible," says Priest Boyan.

The Cathedral Church "Assumption of the Theotokos" in Pazardzhik has always been the center and focus of all the most significant celebrations. On today's church holiday, a queue of people from all over the city forms, coming to worship and thank the Mother of God in front of her miraculous icon:

"The Holy Mother of God is the inexhaustible well of God's grace and the love of the Mother of God, who helps those who seek and call upon her. The icon was donated by a family at the beginning of the 20th century who did not have a child and prayed to her. When She blessed them with her blessing and the child was born, they donated this icon to our church. To this day, every Wednesday a prayer canon to the Most Holy Mother of God is served, when women who cannot conceive come with bread, which is blessed during the service itself and distributed. We have many cases when the following year they come to express their gratitude for having a child."

It is joyful that to this day, the residents of Pazardzhik appreciate the church, know its value, "because it is priceless and we cannot put a price on either the temple or the iconostasis, but its truly great wealth is the spiritual life that is led in it," concludes Father Boyan.