ABOUT THE BOYAR HOUSE

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The Boyar (Byzantine) House, situated among the ruins of a mediaeval fortress-settlement, is a very interesting thing to be seen. The house is located near the town of Melnik, on the Razklona (Road fork) upland. The upland, also known as the Fork, is situated 10 minutes of walk away to the east of the centre of the town.
The house is declared an architectural and constructional monument of culture with national significance. Although the house is partially preserved it is the most remarkable monument of the mediaeval architecture from the beginning of XIII century in Bulgaria and one of the oldest residential buildings on the Balkans.
The initial period of the house construction dates back to the first half of XIII century when it was a residence of despot Alexis Slav. In the middle of XIII century part of the house was destroyed by fire and demolished. During the next centuries the house was restored and reconstructed. In the end of XVII century it was destroyed at some sectors. In the beginning of XVIII century the house was entirely reconstructed. An attic floor and a clock tower were built. The tower existed till the beginning of the XX century.
During the Late Middle Ages and the Bulgarian national Revival the house was one of the most luxuriously furnished buildings in the town of Melnik and in the region. It disposed of marble floorings, fountains with marble statues, halls and rooms with mosaic floors, frescoes and windows with coloured glasses.
As part of the Slavova Fortress, the house took the most important strategic position on the first defensive level of the fortress. It was the central zone of the outside town. Nowadays impressive ruins are left from the house – almost the entire front walls and the inside dividing wall, which is connected to the northwestern and the southeastern walls as well as the façade of a tower-like premise with a large cellar.
The house consists of a tall ground floor and a living one. It is remarkable for the brick decoration of the main building and the tower-like premise, where main subjects are the undulating lines, the fish bones, the geometrical figures made of bricks and stone, the zones of bricks with large horizontal gaps. This construction technology is an element of the Bulgarian mediaeval pictorial style in architecture, which originates from the early mediaeval buildings in Bulgarian territories (IX-X century) and reaches perfection in the towns of Ohrid, Tarnovo and Nesebar during the XIII-XIV centuries.
As a result of archaeological excavations a farm building and a water storehouse were found right next to the tower-like premise. A small church with a nave and one vault, which dates back to the beginning of XIII century, was found as well.