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Church St. Ivan Rilski Under Snow Cover

A drone view of submerged church "St. Ivan Rilski" under heavy snow cover, near the town of Tvardica, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Friday, January, 29, 2016. Last year for the first time in many years, until recently submerged church "St. Ivan Rilski", came to surface when the dam Zhrebchevo almost dry, The Church of St. Ivan Rilski was once part of a village of Zapalnya, settled around 15th century but during the Zhrebchevo dam construction in year 1965 the whole area and village have been submerging. On the bottom of the dam were flooded all the houses, the school, community center and all the beautiful rose fields. Its inhabitants managed the - most of the best plantations of rose oil in the country. There were more than 120 rose oil distillation installations. The only thing left as evidence of the settlement are the ruins of this church, built over the ruins of another church from IV-IX century and the graveyard on the top of the hill behind. In the front of the graveyard, faced at the dam, residents rised up a plaque of their village, says: "Village of Zapalnya, Settled at XV century, force moved 1962 year". Lately the area of Zhrebchevo dam become one of most popular tourist attraction in the area. Sometimes when the waters cover the church over it becames and attraction for the scuba divers and it is often visited by canoe clubs not only from Bulgaria, but many other. Photo by: Petar Petrov /Impact Press Group/NurPhoto

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