Photo gallery 'The Magic of Bulgaria'

MONASTERIES
There are dozens of big and small monasteries spread all across the country. They carry the light through the centuries.

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Rila monastery^*

Rojen monastery^*

Preobrajensky monastery^*

There is an interesting legend surrounding Rila monastery and its Saint, Ivan, who lived in the 10th century. After his parents' death, he gave away all of his material items, left his village and went to live in a cave in the Rila mountains. One can visit the cave today. The cave has a very narrow entrance and it is said that if you are without sin that you will be able to pass through the entrance to the cave. Ivan lived without material possessions and grew healthier and stronger than he had ever been. For many years people visited him in his cave when they were sick in order to be healed. Upon Ivan-s death, his body was wrapped in a shroud and buried. His body did not decay, however, and all those that visited his tomb were cured of their sicknesses. Saint Ivan in entombed in the Rila Monastery and to this day the remains grant healing and comfort to those that approach them with faith.

Bachkovsky^** monastery

Boyana Church

Dryanovo Monastery

Glozhene Monastery

Monastery of Kapinovo

The Monastery of Kremikovtsi
"Sveti Georgi"

Sokolski Monastery

Troyan Monastery

Zemen Monastery

With the emergence of Christian monasticism as a spiritual vanguard of the new world of Christianity, monasteries began to be built through-aut the Bulgarian lands as early as the 4th-5th centuries. Written sources from that time archaeological excavations testify to the existence of several dozens of monastic establishments set up at places later to be inhabited by Bulgarians. The adoption of Christianity as an official religion in Bulgaria in 864 was followed by a boom in monastery construction. The monasteries around the royal cities of Pliska and Preslav were engaged, apart from the liturgical, also in culture, educational and economic activities, like the Byzantine ones.
During the National Revival Period the monastery arrangement did away with the ossified canons of the Middle age to provide adequate functioning and representative looks for the biggest public complexes of the time - the monasteries.

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THE MONASTERIES IN THE ISKUR GORGE