THE MONASTERIES

There are numerous majestic and wonderful orthodox monasteries in Bulgaria. Their presence is due to the specific history of Bulgaria.
The lands of Bulgaria were in Turkish slavery for more than 500 years.
As the Turkish conquestors were Muslim, the Christian religion gained extreme importance for preserving the Bulgarian nationality.
This is the reason why so many Christian temples - churches and monasteries were built in Bulgaria. The monasteries are lavishly decorated and skillfully painted.
The monasteries in Bulgaria are not just temples; they are historical as well as art monuments of incredible importance.

Rila Monastery
It can briefly described as a combination monumental architecture an rich history. It was founded in the Xth. century by Ivan Rilski and used to be the primary spiritual and cultural centre of Bulgaria and the whole orthodox enclave.
The church"s interior is extremely impressive. The murals were painted between 1840 and 1848 by some of the finest artists of the time. This gallery of art was enriched by the murals in the churches and chapels outside the monastery. Thirty-six figural scenes, the figures of the Old Testament Kings, apostles martyrs, an exceptionally rich ornamentation of flowers, birds and stylized figures - this, in short, is the subject-matter of the main carved altar of the Holy Virgin Church fashioned by four masters over a period of five years.
The library contains 16000 volumes including 134 manuscripts from l5th to 19th century, numerous incunabula and documents. The donations represent an original chronicle of the national consciousness, of those pure patriotic feelings and hopes, which were inspired throughout centuries in every Bulgarian by the Rila Monastery - the country's largest spiritual and cultural temple.

Rozhen Monastery
Тhe Rozhen monastery is one of the few medieval monasteries, which has preserved its original appearance, authentic architecture and monumental pictorial art.
The monastery was built in 1220.It is one of the oldest monasteries in Bulgaria In the 14th-17th centuries it is a spiritual and literary center, a calligraphic school works here.
The Monastery is remarkable for its wood carved iconostasis.
The miraculous icon of Virgin Mary is one of the monastery treasures. There is a legend that a widow from Nikea has thrown the icon into the sea to save it from Teofil the Byzantine emperor. The icon has floated many years to the Greek shore. In 999 it has reached the gates of the Iviron monastery with an aureole of light.

Bachkovo Monastery
One of the oldest monasteries in the Bulgarian lands, it rises in the picturesque Chaya river valley, 29 km south of Plovdiv. Founded in 1083, Bachkovo Monastery is chiefly known for its original architecture, rich collections of old icons, jewelry, coins and church plate. The library preserves many valuable incunabula and old manuscripts. Its most remarkable feature, however, are the paintings that are seen everywhere - in the church and ossuary, where the figure of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander is discernible among the I I th and 14th century murals, in the refectory (1601), in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin main church (1604), and in the Holy Trinity and St. Nicholas church (I 840), which contain some of the first murals painted by the celebrated National Revival artist Zahari Zograph.

Aladzha Monastery
The name of Aladzha monastery comes from the Turkish word for colorful ("aladzha") due most probably to the bright colours of its wall paintings, dating back to the early Middle Ages. This is one of the few preserved and accessible rock monasteries in Bulgaria, conforming to the hesychastic idea of silence, asceticism and moral perfection. According to some historians, primitive monks' cells were built and inhabited already in the 4th century AC. The entire monastery is considered to date back to the 12th century AC. Monastic cells and a small church have been dug into a sheer rock, 14 km from the city of Varna and close to the Black Sea resort of Golden Sands. Differently colored 13th-14th century frescoes are still discernible on its walls.

Arbanassi Monastery
There are two monasteries in the village of Arbanassi, 3 km from Veliko Turnovo - St. Nikola and Holy Vigin. Between the 16th century and its tragic devastation two centuries later the village - one of the wealthiest in Bulgaria, boasted a rich and unusual house architecture, the work of skilled masters from different parts of the country. St. Nikola Monastery was part of the widespread religious construction under the Assen dynasty, the founders of the Second Bulgarian State.
The filigree wooden iconostasis in the chapel, with its delicate and exquisite decorations, is valuable treasure.
At the Holy Virgin Monastery too, the Tryavna School has left valuable icons behind. Visitors are taken by the icon of St Virgin Mary with a silver repose cover – a part of the silver cover being added at a later stage with the funds of a local trader whose child was cured following a pray to the icon. The icon is believed to be miraculous by both the nuns and the local people who come to the monastery to address their prayers to her. According to the legend, at the time the nuns abandoned the monastery shortly after the fall of the state, they covered the icon with cloths and hid it in the ground. Many years later, a shepherd boy heard a mournful voice coming from the ground at the same place while walking his herd, and found the icon with the help of his father.

Dryanovo Monastery
In existence as early as in the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, it was subsequently destroyed and re-built on two occasions. It was restored in its present location - in the Dryanovo River gorge, 4 km away from the town of Dryanovo - in 1845. Relics of the April epopee are preserved in the monastery museum today, along with some valuable icons.

Troyan Monastery
The Troyan Monastery, is known above all for the creative work of Zahari Zograph who painted both the exterior and the interior (a rare practice for the time) of the main church built in 1835, 7 km from the town of Troyan.
Fortunately, masts of the great works of old and National Revival art have survived. The iconostasis of the main church made in 1839 is a masterpiece of woodcarving. Amazing in its originality, is the much earlier (1794) carving of the holy altar gates in the St. Nikola Chapel.

Belashtitsa Monastery
The Belashitsa monastery was built by a Byzantine military commander, Nikifor Skifi in 1020.He consecrated it to St. George The Victorious. Nikifor was an ethnic Bulgarian born in Stara Zagora and taken as slave to Tsarigrad (present-day Istanbul) when he was 11. There, he was trained for a Byzantine soldier. When he was 30, Nikifor Skifi took part in the Belasitsa mountain battle as a military commander and ordered that even his own brother be blinded so that he does not tell Nikifor’s origin. The mother of Nikifor, Ventsislava, was 76 when she saw the horror done to the Bulgarian soldiers and her elderly son Dragomir. She cursed Nikifor with the words: “Be cursed with short life, my son, for what you’ve done”. The revenge over Nikifor Skifi, nicknamed “The Bulgarians’ Assassin”, came on December 22, 1029, when the Byzantine army was defeated and he was killed at the Belasitsa Mountain. In the 19th and 20th centuries, religious Bulgarians donated funds for further construction and improvement of the buildings, the yard and the church of the monastery. The monastery is declared a monument of culture.

Batoshevo Monastery
The Batoshevo Monastery was established in the year 1250 during the rule of Tzar Mihail Assen. The monastery was destroyed with the fall of the Bulgarian state under Ottoman rule. In 1809, a monk from the town of Troyan, heard the story of a herdswoman who one evening, while seeking for lost cattle, saw a mother and a child sitting over a stone and crying for being left forgotten and homeless. The monk interpreted her vision as the request of God’s Mother to have a monastery rebuilt in this place.He built a small cottage close to the stone, hang an icon inside and started living here as a hermit.
Unfortunately, the monk was not able to finish his deed as he was forced out of his place. In 1831 during a plague epidemic, many citizens of Sevlievo left their homes and fled to the Balkan mountain.

The people then took a vow to build a monastery in the place of the old Batoshevo monastery if they survive the epidemic. And so it happened.
The Batoshevo Monastery took an active part in revolutionary activity against the Turkish rulers. During the April Uprising in 1876, the monastery was set on fire by Turkish troops, but thanks to a sudden rain, the church was saved from the fire.