Dobarsko is among the oldest settlements in Bulgaria.
First Dobarsko was mentioned in the Rila Charter of King Ivan Shishman from 1378 under the name Gnidobradsko as a vassal of the Rila Monastery. In the Dzhelepkeshanski Register from 1576 the village was recorded with the name Gnidobronska as a waqf.
After the Turkification of Razlog, the population of Dobarsko grew rapidly with the Bulgarians, escaping from the Ottomans.
Till 18th century Dobarsko was an important economic and commercial center in the valley of Razlog. On its pastures a lot of flocks and herds were bred, which in the winter went down to the south in the fields of Serres and Drama, from where the merchants of Dobarsko exported cotton to Bosnia and Serbia, Vienna and Budapest. Its name was at that time, till 1912, Nedobarsko.
Down the ages Dobarsko was a center of important cultural and religious events. As a result, today the village has eight temples, which encircle it.
Most likely the greatest historical place of interest in the village is the church St. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat, situated right in the central part of Dobarsko. It is a basilica with a nave and two aisles dated to 17th century, which was built half in the ground in order not to incur the wrath of the Ottoman Empire.
Its wall-paintings with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ are remarkable and well preserved. The church was built in 1614, but judging from the inscription on the stone, dug into the ground in front of the altar, it could be assumed that the year of its construction is 1122. According to the requirements of the Ottomans the building had not to be notable among the other residential buildings and that's why it does not have even windows - only narrow, like loopholes, openings in the thick stone wall.
The temple was of small size (8,37 x 6,50 x 5,20 m) and half in the ground, without a bell tower and a dome, with small windows, it looked more like a small inaccessible fortress. But the people of Dobarsko made up for that with its rich interior decoration and magnificence.
The splendid wall-paintings and the original architecture of the temple ranks it among the most valuable pieces of the Bulgarian art. The number of the painted images in the temple is more than 460, which is an achievement of the religious pictorial arts by itself considering the small area, they are painted on. Because of them the temple is declared a national monument of the culture. In St. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat you can see the works of the local artists.
Very attractive to the visitors of the village and the church is the fresco of Jesus Christ in a form resembling a spaceship. In the yard of the temple a spring flows, which is supposed to be healing and also keeps a story, covered in legends. According to the legend the first settlers of Dobarsko were the soldiers of tsar Samuil, blinded in the battle of Belasitsa in 1014. They found curing in the healing water, springing in the yard of the church. They established the famous music school of Dobarsko in order to support blind children. The school survived until the beginning of 20th century. The legend also says that the water of this spring of the old church had healed the eyes of Kliment Ochridski as well.
All these legendary stories are represented in the frescoes on the walls of the church "St. Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratilat."
In 1973-1978 the restorer Peter Popov and the architect Zlatka Kirova restored the frescoes and renovate the temple. The church is a monument of culture and is under the protection of UNESCO.
It is one of the Hundred Tourist Sites of Bulgaria.
Source: http://dobarsko.com/, Wikipedia, http://www.dobarsko.org/, http://www.pravoslavieto.com/hramove/dobarsko/index.htm, http://www .4coolpics.com/article.php? id = 24, http://bansko.net/dobarsko
