Restricted Zone

If you travel to an Orthodox region, chances are that you’ll be left disappointed by not being allowed to take pictures of the religious temples. Not only of the interior of the churches, but also of the churchyards.

Here, I don’t even want to comment the funny Orthodox rules that prohibit women from entering the room behind the Iconostasis – this room is only accessible to men, or the denial of women’s access to some churches when they haven’t covered their heads and don’t wear a long skirt or dress (jeans or long pants won’t help).

It’s about photographing. And it’s not important whether you just want to capture a memory from your journey with the cell phone or you are passionate about religious architecture or architecture in general and want to make a beautiful picture with your professional camera.

Recently, I watched a part of a Bulgarian movie where a young photographer goes to a village and takes one picture of the local church from the street. Then, out of nowhere, the priest appears and says:
What are you doing? Who gave you the permission to do this?
So now, you have to pay. How much money do you have?

So, I thought it’s all about money. Because in some temples, there is a fee that you can pay if you want to take pictures. And this fee is not as small as the fee at the Aachen Cathedral, for example.
But there are also places where there is no fee. It’s just prohibited.
And it’s not only about poor countries like Bulgaria and Romania, because it’s the same situation in Greece too.
So, it’s not only about money.

It’s still a mystery to me what are the Orthodox priests hiding. And why a Bulgarian priest once poured a bottle of water over the head of one of my friends when she tried to take a picture in the courtyard of a monastery, or why I was chased away, again from the churchyard of a church when I wanted to take a picture of its door from outside.

So, be careful while traveling to Orthodox regions 😉