The earliest frescoes in the Church of the Holy Archangel Michael of Tran Monastery

The results of the most recent restoration of the Monastery ofTran (Western Bulgaria) provide one with an opportunity toreconsider the dating of the two early wall-painting layers inthe church. The dome of the naos was the first to be painted.These frescoes were made by icon-painters from the sameworkshop engaged in the Church of St. John the Theologian inPoganovo (1499) and associated with Kastoria. Proof of thehigh level of education of the icon-painters is the inscriptionson the troparion Sileat omnis caro (Poganovo) and a chantfrom the Pentecostarion (Tran). The unresearched frescoes inthe altar space of the Tran Church are from the second stage ofpainting made in the sixteenth century.