Next to the cemetery of Sografou is the chapel ‘Annunciation to the Virgin’, a beautiful old building painted in ocher yellow and terracotta brown/red colors. (Here) on the right and under this building in which the ossuary is located. Both buildings are in a poor state of maintenance. This photo was taken at the back of the chapel.

The front of the chapel with the outbuilding in blue and brown colors. I took a look what’s behind the door of this annex (in the shadow on the right).

After opening the door: the stairs lead to the first floor, with a small niche in the wall. painted in red and yellow.

The yellow niche with bottles with olive oil and matches

On the first floor is a large balcony with a bench and a semantron. On the right is door the next building. In the garden below you can see the remnants of the carriages. The ceiling on the right almost comes down!

A table with a broken tableau with a Greek text.

A wooden cross with carvings and small blue dots and a (primitive) mural of a holy man in a long and fine robe, holding a cross. There is also graffiti from 1930, 1943, 1957 and a few more numbers (years?) on the wall (see also details below).

Two copper bells hang from the ceiling. The rest of the building was in such a desperate state that it was too dangerous to walk any further.

This text on the wall must be in Bulgarian (for me impossible to translate).

On the ground floor I found these items and rooms:

An old mule or donkey saddle.

The entrance to the charnel house with a coffin and a beer: on the right behind the fence is the place where the skulls and bones are kept.

The room under the chapel with bones and skulls.

On leaving the ossuary: more almost ruined houses.

Wim Voogd, 20-11-2023