The Mountain as a City
Dissemination of the Image of the Holy Mount in the Balkans
Abstract
The article examines the concept of the sacred mountain in medieval Orthodox culture, focusing on parallels between Mount Athos, Constantinople, and Balkan monastic centers. It argues that the idea of the Holy Mountain as the Garden of the Mother of God originates in monastic tradition and later acquires political meaning. Through examples from Bulgaria, especially Tarnovo and Rila, the study shows how the mountain is conceived as a spiritual ‘city’, complementing the imperial capital and forming part of a unified sacred geography linking monasticism, Marian devotion, and state ideology.
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: May 15, 2026 | Published Forthcoming | Language: en
Keywords Mount Athos • Marian cult • Byzantine ideology • Monasticism • Sacred mountain
Copyright © 2026 Diana Atanasova, Ivan Biliarsky. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-071-0/005