MONASTERY TOUR - BULGARIA
(8 days / 7 nights)
The unique heritage on the Balkans
In the last few years, Bulgarian monasteries, which are closely connected to the historical fate of the Bulgarian state and nation, have witnessed increasing tourist interest. From the very start, monasteries have gained great importance as centres of the Bulgarian literature and culture and have preserved the nation's values during difficult times. Some of the monasteries, which date back to Byzantine times, have played a key role in keeping up the Bulgarians' spirit and self-consciousness during 5 centuries of Ottoman domination. Others were built in the late 20th century in the place of destroyed cloisters in order to restore past glory and respond to the religious needs of local people. Due to Ottoman invasions or merely to the course of time, only few of the still-functioning monasteries keep their original architecture and interior of the buildings. Nevertheless, the visit of each one of them leaves a lasting memory and a deep impression. Some impose on the visitor with their unique design, others - with their valuable icons and masterly wall paintings, third - with their location in most beautiful and wild parts of the country.
Day 1. Arrival at Sofia airport. Transfer to a hotel. Dinner and overnight.
Day 2. Sofia - Rila monastery – Sandanski
After breakfast depart to Sandanski. On the way, visit to Rila monastery - the biggest and the most imposing of all Bulgarian monasteries. The place is invaluable treasure, included in the UNESCO list of the World Heritage. It houses fine works of National Revival painters, builders, woodcarvers and icon painters. This place is believed to be the birth place of Spartacus. Accommodation in a hotel. Time at leisure. Dinner and overnight.
The Rila monastery lies in the very Rila mountain, at 1,147 meters above sea level. It is situated 117km away from Sofia to the south, and is no doubt the most popular tourist site among all monasteries in Bulgaria equally for its size, natural surroundings, architecture, wall paintings and ancient history.
The monastery is believed to have been founded by a hermit, John of Rila, in the 10th century, during the reign of the Bulgarian Tzar Peter (927-968). St John of Rila, whose mummified relics are exhibited for pilgrims in the main church, in fact lived in a cave about half-an-hour walk away from the present-day monastery complex. The monastery itself is considered to have been built by his scholars, who came to the place to be taught by him.
The present-day look of the monastery dates back to the 19th century. The residential buildings, which form a closed irregular quadrangle, started in 1816. In the middle of the inner courtyard rises the oldest building of the complex - an impressive stone tower, built by the local feudal Sebastocrator Hrelyu in 1334-1335. A small church, which is just a few years younger (1343) stands next to the tower. In more recent times, a belfry was added to the tower (1844). Around that time, the monastery’s main church, “the Nativity of the Virgin” was built as well. The architect is master Pavel Ivanovich, who worked on the building in 1834-1837. The church is a 5-domed one with three altar niches and two side chapels. One of the biggest valuables of the church is its wooden iconostasis with azure fretwork. The wall paintings, finished in 1846, were made by many artists, but it was only the famous Zahari Zograf (whose work can be still seen in quite a few monasteries nowadays) who signed below his works. Besides, the monastery treasures a number of valuable icons painted in the 14th-19th centuries.
The entire complex is quite impressive for its size. The 4-floor residential part consists of no less than 300 monks’ cells, 4 chapels, an abbot’s room, a kitchen, a library and guestrooms for donors. The kitchen is particularly interesting for its really huge cooking vessels. The exterior of the monastery is no less intriguing for its high and severe stone walls (reaching 4 floors and even more at some places) cut through by small windows – reminding of a military fort rather than a monastery.
Once in the complex, it is worth visiting the monastery’s museum, which hosts a unique work of art, namely The Raphael’s Cross. The cross is made of a whole piece of wood (81cm x 43cm) and is named after its creator. The monk used fine chisels, small knives and magnifying lens to carve 104 religious scenes and 650 small figures into the cross. The cross was finished in 1802 after the monk worked on it for no less than 12 years, losing his sight upon completion.
Similarly to other Bulgarian monasteries that survived during Ottoman times, the Rila monastery has acted as a centre of spiritual and cultural life for the Bulgarian nation during the foreign rule. During that time, the monks created new works and made copies of medival Bulgarian authors, representing mainly the Turnovo and Mount Athos schools.
The monastery was declared a national historical monument in 1976, while in 1983 it was inscribed in UNESCO’s list of world heritage.
Day 3. Sandanski - Rozhen monastery - Bansko
After breakfast, a trip to the small town of Bansko. A stopover at the wonderful Rozhen monastery. The building is perched on the hill, surrounded by majestic, sandstone pyramids. Just next to Rozhen is the museum town of Melnik. Dinner and overnight at a hotel.
The Rozhen monastery is situated about 5km away from the small town of Melnik up in the lower part of the Pirin mountain. It offers an amazing view to the peaks of the Pirin and Belasitsa mountains, and the famous ‘mels’ of Melnik – the latter being pyramid-like hills around the town, formed by the erosion of clay loam.
The Rozhen monastery is the biggest sanctuary in the Pirin region and one of the few Bulgarian monasteries of the Middle Ages, which has survived relatively intact up to present days. According to annals kept in Atone, Greece, the monastery dates back at least to 890 AC – for comparison, the biggest monastery in Bulgaria, the Rila monastery, is believed to have started functioning in 917 AC. The church of the monastery, named St Birth of Virgin Mary, later gave its name to the nearby village of Rozhen (Rozhen coming from the root of the Bulgarian word for birth, ‘Rozhdenie’). During the rule of Despot Aleksii Slav, governor of the region at the time of Tzar Kaloyan (1197-1207) and Kaloyan’s nephew, the monastery’s complex was enriched with a number of buildings. The monastery was destroyed by fire in the early 17th century, but was rebuilt in the beginning of the 18th century with the financial support of wealthy Bulgarians from all over the country. The reconstruction started in 1715, with the church having been entirely renovated in 1732. The monastery saw its apogee in the 19th century when it served as a regional spiritual centre and had numerous real estate holdings in the surrounding area. The end of the monastery’s heyday was put by a famous local revolutionary, Yane Sandanski, who together with his relatives seized real estate properties of the monastery. Nowadays, the monastery is well maintained and open to visitors all around the year. The monastery’s holiday is on September 8, when people from all over the area gather to take part in the celebrations.
The monastery has an irregular 6-angle form, with residential buildings surrounding a beautiful yard with the church lying in the centre of it. All the monastery’s buildings were constructed in different periods, with the monks’ dining room, the bone-vault and several farm buildings being the oldest ones, dating back to the period before the fire in the 17th century. Besides well preserved wall paintings, the monastery is famous for its stained glass (the oldest of its type preserved till present days) and unique woodcarvings. As other monasteries, the Rozhen one also has its miraculous icon-protector, of Virgin Mary, which is kept in an ark in one of the chapels of the complex. According to the legend, the icon is one of the few copies of a sacred iron, owned by a widow of Nikea (Greece). During the times of the Byzantine’s emperor Theophilus, famous for his persecution of icon worship, the widow threw the icon in the waters in order to avoid its being destroyed by the emperor. The icon did not sink but sailed for years, until in 999 it reached the gates of the Iviron monastery in Greece
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In the Southmost part of Bulgaria - the region of MELNIK, summer comes just in the end of April and does away in October. The round shaped ridges of the mountains in the mind winds and the White Sea climate blown over the valley of Struma river have helped the vine-grower during the ages to cultivate the specific local sort "Wide Melnik Vine". It can grow only here and if carried to another place, it withers and fades away. Melnik wine received through the tradesmen from Dubrovnik (they had a special diploma from Ivan Assen II awarded for privileges all over Bulgarian lands) conquered yet in 13 century the dining tables of the aristocracy from Venice, Genua, Marseille, Barcelona, Paris, Liverpool. For its saturated ruby color, delicate fragrance and sweet astringency, the horse, mule and donkey caravans loaded with goat wine-skins full of wine, traveled days on end along the steep and narrow mountain paths, called even nowadays "wine paths", in order to reach Dubrovnik to the West, Salonika to the Sough, Danube river and Vienna to the North until they found its real connoisseurs. The caravan started on their way with splendrous and solemnity so that their travel marked the everyday life in all surrounding villages. They kept a watch on heavy-armed strong man because Melnik wine was appreciated just as silk, porcelain and Indian spices at the market of Venice.
Day 4. Bansko - Batchkovo monastery - Plovdiv
Early in the morning, drive to exquisite murals and medieval icons of Batchkovo monastery - a real gallery of the old Bulgarian art., further drive to Plovdiv. Check in at a hotel. Dinner and overnight.
The second largest Bulgarian monastery, the Bachkovo cloister, lies in the valley of the Chepelare river (also known by the locals as Chaya), about 10km to the south of the town of Assenovgrad. On all sides, the monastery is surrounded by the hills of the Rhodopi mountain, which together with its size and ancient spirit make is one of the most visited monasteries in Bulgaria. The complex and its neighbourhood have grown into a developed tourist sight where dozens of small shops, stalls, and restaurants stand on both sides of the walkway to the gates and appeal with their variety to visitors. One can find here everything that grows or is being manufactured in the Rhodopi mountain – rare herbs, home-made jams of wild fruit, yogurt and white cheese made of sheep or buffalo’s milk, woolen carpets, etc.
The monastery was founded in 1083 by the Byzantine military commander of Georgian origin, Grigorii Bakuriani and his brother Abazii. Yet only the two-storey bone-vault, which lies about 300m to the east of the present-day complex, is still kept from that time. The bone-vault is a must-see building there, for its unique wall-paintings, which rank among the most valuable works of Orthodox art of the 11th –12th c.
During the times of the Second Bulgarian State, the monastery was patronised by Tsar Ivan Alexander, a portrait of whom can be still seen in the arcs of the bone-vault’s narthex due to his renovation of this building. At the end of the 11th century, the monastery opens a religious school. A curious fact is that after the subjection of Bulgarian lands to the Ottoman empire at the end of the 14th century, the Bulgarian Patriarch, Evtimii, was sent on exile here in the monastery. Nevertheless, the exile did not dishearten the Patriarch and he, together with his scholars, developed active religious and cultural activity behind the walls of the monastery.
Even if the Bachkovo monastery survived the first coup of the Ottoman invasion, it was not spared later one and similarly to other cloister, was raided and ruined down. It was restored towards the end of the 15th century with the dining hall having been reconstructed in 1601, and the present-day church, Virgin Mary, – in 1604. The wall-paintings of the dining hall, finished in 1603 by an unknown master, are particularly impressive for their artistic value. The church, on the other hand, also boasts with beautiful frescoes, but what draws mostly on visitors is its icon of Virgin Mary, believed to be wonder-working. A long queue of pilgrims wishing to say their prayers to the miraculous image of the God’s Mother, often starts far outside the entrance of the church. Besides the main church, the complex also has two smaller shrines: one called St Archangels (13th - 14th c.) and standing in the northern part of the inner yard (next to the main church) and another one, named after St Nikola (1834-1837). The St Nikola church rises in the southern part of the yard and is worth visiting for the well-kept paintings of the famous artist Zahari Zograf (including a portrait of the very artist himself), finished in 1841. The monastery also has its own museum which holds rare religious items of different times.
Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, situated on the Maritsa River. Its unique location on these ancient crossroads has stimulated strong cultural and political influences from East and West civilizations, and yet maintained its unique cultural identity. Being older than most of the oldest towns like Rome, Athens, Carthage or Constantinople, an almost contemporary of Troy, Plovdiv is a town built upon layers of towns and a culture developed upon layers of cultures.
Plovdiv is a picturesque town, with many parks and gardens, museums and archaeological monuments. Its old part, called the Old Town, with houses from the National Revival period (18-19th century), is an imposing open-air museum situated on the three hills of the ancient Trimontium. One of the most remarkable sights of the town, the Ancient Theatre (a well-preserved Roman theatre), is located there and is still used for open-air performances.
Day 5. Plovdiv - Kazanlak - Etera - Gabrovo
After breakfast, drive to Kazanlak. Short sightseeing in the town and the Thracian tomb (UNESCO monument). Visit to the ethnographic museum of Etera - a place where most of the ancient Bulgarian arts and crafts can be seen in live. Gabrovo - accommodation in a hotel, dinner and overnight.
Discovered in 1944, thå Êàzanlak tomb dates from the Hellenistic period, around the end of the 4th century B.C. It is located near Seutopolis, the capital city of the Thracian king Seutes III, and is part of a large Thracian necropolis. The tholos has a narrow corridor and a round burial chamber, both decorated with murals representing Thracian burial rituals and culture. These paintings are Bulgaria's best-preserved artistic masterpieces from the Hellenistic period.
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The most picturesque place in Gabrovo is the architectural and ethnographical complex Etårà - a unique open-air museum. The Bulgarian Renaissance atmosphere is reserved there in the old workshops of traditional Bulgarian arts and crafts. The visitors can watch the craftsmen doing everything by their own hands and by water-driven machinery. There are some hotels, restaurants, and taverns available. The visitors like them for the Bulgarian traditions in cooking are still reserved there
The town of Gabrovo is situated in Northern Bulgaria, along the River Yantra, in the north Sredna Stara Planina mountain spur, 392 m above sea-level. Gabrovo is 220 km north-east from the city of Sofia. In the immediate vicinity of Gabrovo is the geographical centre of Bulgaria. Because of its locality the town is a busy road junction. There are a lot of roads leading from Gabrovo to the other towns and municipalities in Northern and Southern Bulgaria.
Due to its clean mountain air, historical and ethnographical complexes Gabrovo has become an attractive tourist centre. Municipality and the surrounding area is considered to be one of the most ecologically clean regions in Bulgaria. The rich flora and fauna come to prove that. Some of the best hunting trophies such as bear, red deer and mouflon can be found in the game reserves.
Day 6. Gabrovo - Drianovo monastery - Arbanassi
Visit to the Drianovo monastery. Next stopover is Arbanassi with its 5 churches and the beautiful houses with their solid walls, heavy gates, iron grids, richly decorated on the inside. Visit to the " Birth of Christ " church with its realistic figures and Biblical scenes. Accommodation in a hotel. Dinner. Overnight.
The historical Dryanovo monastery, St Archangel Michael, is situated about 4km away from Dryanovo in the picturesque gorge of the Dryanovo river where limestone rocks rise high on all sides of the gorge as inapproachable forest walls.
It is believed that the first monastery in this place was founded some 2km to the north of the present-day buildings, in an area called The Little St Archangel. Its founders were two rebel boyars of the then-capital city of Turnovo –the Assen and Petar brothers. In the 14th century, the holy place was one of the main centres of Hesychasm and sheltered many monks. At the beginning of the 15th century, the monastery was destroyed by the invading Ottoman troops. Later on, it was reconstructed on a neighbouring site, known as the Big St Archangel, but the fate of this monastery was no happier than that of its predecessor. The Dryanovo monastery was restored anew at the end of the 17th century, this time in its present-day place. The main church of that time had a single nave and was half-hidden in the ground. It was standing very near to the present-day church; besides it, there was also a secondary shrine.
The renovation of the monastery was started at the time of father Rafail, during the 40es of the 19th century. The current residential buildings rising from the side of the river were built at that time, while the new church was finished in 1845. Gradually, the renovated Dryanovo monastery became a religious and cultural centre and one of the largest and well-kept cloisters in the region of Turnovo.
Dryanovo monks took active part in the Bulgarians’ uprisings and plots against the Ottoman rule. One of the main quarters of the Bulgarian Central Revolutionary Committee in Turnovo was located exactly in the monastery and famous rebel leaders such as Vassil Levski and Georgi Izmirliev were often to be found there. There was a secret storeroom for food and arms, which was the reason why rebel leaders Priest Hariton and Bacho Kiro used the monastery as their fortress at the time of the April uprising. Only a small number of the Bulgarian rebels survived the battle with the Turkish troops, while the monastery was again set on fire with the church being the only building that is left relatively intact. The most recent reconstruction of the complex was carried out shortly after the Liberation. A new residential part and a museum were added to the existing buildings. The bell-tower was erected in 1925.
Austere houses that resemble minor fortresses on the outside with high, solid walls and heavy gates, iron grids and secret hiding-places, but which are spacious and comfortable, richly decorated and furnished on the inside. The oldest of Arbanassi's five churches is The Birth of Christ (1637 - 1649), dug into the ground without a belfry and with hidden cupolas, but hiding a genuine art gallery with over 3,500 stunningly realistic figures and Biblical scenes, painted by unknown artists throughout the ages.
Day 7. Veliko Tarnovo - Troyan monastery - Sofia
After breakfast depart to Troyan monastery, nestled in the mountain. The well - preserved murals and wall paintings can be seen in the main church. Journey continues to its final stage. Accommodation in a hotel. Dinner. Overnight.
The stauropegial Troyan monastery, “Assumption of Virgin Mary”, lies 10 km to the southeast of the old Balkan town of Troyan, in the skirts of the Balkan mountain range. Built at about 400 meters above sea level, the biggest monastery in the Balkan mountains is surrounded by beautiful forests and the Cherni Osam river, which gives a particular charm to the place. The monastery’s complex is quite developed as a tourist site with plenty of shopping outlets, restaurants and entertainment facilities in the neighbourhood
The first traces of religious life in the area date back to the end of the 16th century, or according to some – to an even earlier time around the end of the second Bulgarian state (turn of the 14th century), when the very town of Troyan was founded. According to the monastery’s chronicles, kept by an unknown monk, the monastery was founded by a hermit who came to the place and built himself a simple cottage some years after the fall of the second Bulgarian state. The monk quickly won the respect of the local people who started visiting him for prayer and advice. Later on, he built a church consecrated to the Holy Virgin.
Between the time of its establishment and 1830, the monastery lived through difficult times, when it was often raided and destroyed, while its monks – killed. The monastery’s dependence on the Greek bishops of the Lovech eparchy, who used its lands and forests for their own enrichment, added to the monastery’s troubles. The solution to the latter problem came in 1830, when a delegation of monks visited the Patriarchy in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) to present a request for religious, administrative and economic independence of the Troyan monastery. With the help of a supportive letter by the metropolitan bishop of Troyan, Ilarion, the monks achieved what they went to Constantinople for. A special Charter, dated December 4, 1830 and signed by the ecumenical Patriarch Constandios, gave the monastery the desired autonomy, by declaring it “stauropegial” – meaning that it was exempted from the jurisdiction of the local bishop of Lovech and was directly subjected to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. From that point onward, the monastery has expanded and developed into a cultural and religious centre.
The monastery is built in the style of the Bulgarian Renaissance. The chapel of St Nikolay the Miracle-Worker is the oldest but best preserved religious building in the area, though it lies outside the present-day monastery complex, at about half an hour walk south of it. The monastery’s church, “Assumption of Virgin Mary”, was built in 1835 by a master from the village of Peshtera, named Konstantin. The church was built of porous limestone and large bricks in alternating layters, and impressed foreign visitors with its architecture. One such traveller, the Hungarian Felix Kanitz, expressed his admiration at the church in his book “Danubian Bulgaria and the Balkans” in 1871.
Similarly to other Bulgarian monasteries, this one also has its miraculous icon, which arrived at the monastery at the time of its establishment, namely the icon of the Three-handed Holy Virgin. According to the story, the icon was donated by a monk who on his way from Mt Athos to present-day Romania learnt about the hermit who lived close to Troyan and dropped by to spend some time with him.
Besides its religious role, the monastery great Bulgarian writers, teachers and translators, including historians such as the monk Spirodon, author of the second book on the Bulgarian history (1792).It was also linked to the Bulgarians’ struggle against the Ottoman rule. Similarly to other monasteries, the Troyan one also hosted frequently the famous Bulgarian Apostle of Freedom, Vassil Levski. The latter formed revolutionary committees not only in the town of Troyan, but also at the monastery itself. The monastery’s secret committee numbered about 80 monks and was headed by archimandrite Makari. During that time (mid-19th century), the production of books at the monastery declined, but this was only at the expense of the monks’ preoccupation with the procurement of arms. During the Liberation Russian-Turkish war, Makari transformed the monastery into a field hospital for Russian soldiers and provided the Russians with all possible assistance.
Day 8. After breakfast, transfer to Sofia airport. Return flight.
