Rila Monastery - the symbol of
Bulgarian faith
The Rila Monastery is included
in the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage.
Situated in the heart of
the Rila Mountains, 119 kilometres south of Sofia, the
Monastery was founded in
the 10th century. An inaccessible fortress from the
outside, it reveals a totally
different world behind its heavy gates: exquisite archi-
tecture, with arches and
columns, 1 200 outdoor murals, sunlit verandahs and
old fontains. In the monastery
yard is Hrelyo's Tower, dating from 1335 and the
large Assumption Church with
murals by Zahari Zograph, Stanislav Dospevski
and other famous National
Revival artists. The monastery museum contains many
valuable historic documents,
ancient books and manuscripts, church plates and
gilded charters, altogether
over 41 000 exhibits.
