The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila (Rila Monastery ) - Bulgaria

Hello friends ! I want to introduce you to the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria. The Rila Monastery was founded in the 30-th years of X century in Rila Mountain.It is considered that the creator of the Rila Monastery is the first Bulgarian hermit Ivan Rilsky (876-946), he chose to live in this way as a method of spiritual perfection and a way to express his protest against the suppression of the high moral rules of the real Christianity. The Bulgarian saint was born in the 70-th years of IX century. He was a witness of the decline of the First Bulgarian Kingdom at the time of king Peter I and Saint Ivan Rilsky became the most respected saint in the Orthodox Christianity in that time. At the time of the Byzantine slavery the established brotherhood was turned into a monastery.Between the 10th and 14th centuries the Monastery changed places several times.In the 14th century Hrelyo Dragovol, a feudal lord whose domain comprised the lands around the river Strouma, transformed the monastery into a solidly fortified and imposing architectural ensemble. This is proved by the remains of solid walls in the southwestern corner of the monastery courtyard unearthed during archeological excavations and also by the prominent tower which still stands in the courtyard and by the paintings in the monastery church built by the feudal lord and surviving until the mid-19th century.Large-scale building work began some time during mid-18th century and after 1816 the monastery already had high solid residential buildings which enclosed the courtyard in the shape of an irregular quadrangle.January 13, 1833 was one of the most tragic days in the long history of the monastery. The fire which broke out during the night destroyed almost completely the residential quarters. That was a national calamity and soon people began sending donations for the monastery’s restoration. Thousands of masons, carpenters and auxiliary workers arrived to work and did not get payment for their work. Only for a couple of years the buildings were restored.Three Bulgarian master builders were in charge of the construction works whose scale was unprecedented in those times. They were Alexi from the village of Rila, called Alexi Rilets, who built the northern parts of the east and the west wings, Milenko from the village of Radomir who built the south wing ‘architecton’ Pavel from the village of Krimin who built the church which at the time was the largest in the Balkans. The decoration of the main church, the chapels and the visitors’ rooms was completed by 1870. at that time the monastery looked as we know it today.The church of the Nativity of the Virgin is the monastery’s main church and the core of the architectural ensemble. Its construction began in 1835. That was an event of paramount importance for the entire Bulgarian nation. The innovative daring and the flexibility with which tradition has been interpreted in the architectural design of its imposing church reveals the nature of art during the National Revival Period.This church building is unique in the Balkans. It was built by the then widely known master builder Pavel from the village of Krimin who had worked on Mount Athos and from where he borrowed the original spatial design of the church.The wall paintings in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin were made by the most prominent Bulgarian painters at the time. Most of them were from Samokov where the artists of the Zograph (Painter) family, Zahari Zograph, Dimiter H. Zograph and Stanislav Dospevski, worked. In the 1840s they were joined by Ivan Obrazopissets and his son Nikola Obrazopissets. In the course of several years, at the cost of great effort, to quote Neophit Rilski, they completed the church interior walls, the domes, the facades hidden under the arcade and its small domes and produced 40 large icons for the iconostases and many other smaller ones.The Rila Monastery History Museum possesses a rich collection of extremely valuable exhibits both in the exposition halls and in the monastery vaults. The exhibits are thematically grouped and trace the evolution of the monastery and its cultural, religious and nation-consolidation role.The Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments.

All photos were taken of me with my Nikon COOLPIX B500 in Rila Monastery ,Kyustendil region, Bulgaria.

Thank you for your attention! Have a nice and wonderful day.