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BULGARIAN MONASTERIES & CHURCHES. MONASTERIES. Bulgaria is a country with strong Christian traditions. After the accepting of the Christianity in the IX century, began the building of churches, temples, basilicas and monasteries. Nowadays there are over 100 monasteries in Bulgaria.
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MONASTERIES Bulgaria is a country with strong Christian traditions. After the accepting of the Christianity in the IX century, began the building of churches, temples, basilicas and monasteries. Nowadays there are over 100 monasteries in Bulgaria.
RILA MONASTERY The Rila Monastery is the largest monastery in Bulgaria and it is protected by UNESCO. It was built in the X century and it is located in the heart of the Rila Mountain. The Rila Monastery is famous for its magnificent wall-paintings and the iconostasis. The oldest building that is still part of the monastery complex is the Hrelyova tower, built in 1335. The monastery was a shelter for the national hero Vasil Levski and other revolutionaries.
BACHKOVO MONASTERY The Bachkovo monastery is located in the Rhodope Mountains and it is the 2nd largest in the country. The monastery was founded in 1083. The most interesting mural is “Panorama” and represents the history of the monastery and it provides a bird’s eye view of it with all the surrounding buildings. The impressive yard of the monastery is a favorite place for visitors.
TROYAN MONASTERY The Troyan Monastery is the 3rd largest in Bulgaria. It is situated in the valley of the river Cherni Osam in the Stara Planina Mountain. The monastery was founded around 1600 and was a shelter for revolutionaries as well. The most significant architectural and cultural monument is the main church “The Assumption of Virgin Mary”, which was built in the period 1835-1837. “The Three-Handed Virgin” icon, which is kept inside of it, is thought to be miraculous.
BESARBOVO MONASTERY The rock Monastery “St. Dimitar Basarbovski” is located in the valley of Rusenski Lom River, near the village of Basarbovo. It is the only operating rock monastery in Bulgaria. It was probably founded around the XIII century. The most famous inhabitant of the monastery was St. Dimitrius Besarbovski who was born in 1685 in the village of Besarbovo, and spent his entire life in the holy monastery. The water in the well of the monastery’s yard is believed to be healing.
ALADZHA MONASTERY Aladzha Monastery is a cave monastery situated in the rocks of a beautiful protected nature park near the Black Sea. There are no reliable historical proves when the monastery was established, but it is thought that it already existed in the X – XII centuries. The Christian name of the monastery is unknown. The word “aladzha” comes from Persian-Arabic and means “motley, variegated”. The monastery is currently not operating although is a popular tourist attraction.
PREOBRAZHENSKI MONASTERY The Preobrazhenski (Transfiguration) Monastery is located near the old Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo, close to the Yantra River. It is believed that it was built around 1360. The monastery was reconstructed a few times. The construction of the fascinating Transfiguration of God main church was completed by master Kolyu Ficheto, one of the most famous master builders in the 19th century. The other buildings form a rectangle with a yard paved with cobblestones.
CHURCHES There are hundreds of churches across Bulgaria. Some of them are ancient, others date back to the Medieval times and today new ones appear. Even almost every village has at least one Christian church.
ALEXANDER NEVSKY CATHEDRAL The gold-domed cathedral church “St. Alexander Nevski” is a symbol of the capital Sofia. The temple was completed in 1912. It can hold up to 5,000 people. The bell tower is 53 meters high and has 12 bells, the heaviest of them weighting 12 tons. Nowadays, the Alexander Nevski Cathedral is one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world. This is the main patriarchal church of Bulgaria. The icons kept inside of it are priceless.
ROCK CHURCHES OF IVANOVO The rock churches of Ivanovo form the complex “St. Archangel Michael” which is located near the Rusenski Lom River. It was founded in the 1220s as a great spiritual and educational center and it was formed by many churches and chapels. The well preserved wall paintings in the church “St. Mary”, which show the specifics of Bulgarian church art in the 13th – 14th century, are world famous. They are included by UNESCO in the list of the global cultural inheritance.
HOLY FORTY MARTYRS CHURCH The Holy Forty Martyrs Temple is a medieval church in Veliko Tarnovo that was built in the XIII century when the town was the capital of the Bulgarian Kingdom. Famous Bulgarian kings such as Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II are buried in the church. The Orthodox temple also preserves Omurtag’s Column and Asen’s Column which are some of the most significant ancient Bulgarian epigraphical monuments that give precious information about Bulgaria’s history.
THE NATIVITY CHURCH The Nativity church is the oldest and the most richly decorated church in the village of Arbanasi, located near Veliko Tarnovo. The wall-paintings cover each centimeter as there is not an empty space on the walls and the ceiling. The oldest layer of the wall-paintings is from the end of the XVI century. “The wheel of life” is the most impressive wall-painting in the church.
ST. ARCHANGEL MICHAEL CHURCH The St. Archangel Michael Church was built in 1192 in Tryavna, in the Stara Planina Mountain. The church was demolished during the Ottoman rule and it was restored again later in 1819. It has the typical signs of the time when it was restored - it is dug into the ground. (then it was forbidden the Christian buildings to be higher than Muslim mosques.) Nowadays, the church has a collection of icons organized in a small “Museum of the icon”.
