Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery

The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, greater than before known as the Rila Monastery (Bulgarian:  , Rilski manastir) is the largest and most proficiently-known Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, 117 km (73 mi) south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River at an elevation of 1,147 m (3,763 ft) above sea level, inside of Rila Monastery Nature Park. The monastery is named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila (876 - 946 AD).

Founded in the 10th century, the Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments and is a key tourist likeness for both Bulgaria and Southern Europe. In 2008 alone, it attracted 900,000 visitors.The monastery is depicted a propos the reverse of the 1 lev banknote, issued in 1999.

It is traditionally thought that the monastery was founded by the hermit St. Ivan of Rila, whose post it bears, during the regard as living thing of Tsar Peter I (927-968). The hermit actually lived in a cave without any material possessions not far and wide from the monastery's location, even if the obscure was built by his students, who came to the mountains to appointment their education.

Ever back its commencement, the Rila Monastery has been supported and respected by the Bulgarian rulers. Large donations were made by on the order of every one portion of tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire occurring until the Ottoman Conquest, making the monastery a cultural and spiritual centre of Bulgarian national consciousness that reached its apogee from the 12th to the 14th century.

The Rila Monastery was reerected at its deed place by Hrelyu, a feudal lord out cold Serbian suzerainty, during the first half of the 14th century. The oldest buildings in the puzzling date from this period - the Tower of Hrelja (13341335) and a little church just neighboring to it (1343). The bishop's throne and the wealthy-engraved gates of the monastery as well as colleague the epoch. However, the initiation of the Ottomans in the defer of the 14th century was followed by numerous raids and a destruction of the monastery in the center of the 15th century.

Thanks to donations by the Sultana Mara Brankovi, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Rossikon monastery of Mount Athos, the Rila Monastery was rebuilt in the decline of the 15th century by three brothers from the region of Kyustendil. With Sultana Mara Brankovi's impinge on Ivan of Rila's relics were moved from Trnovo into the progress puzzling in 1469.

The obscure acted as a depository of Bulgarian language and culture in the ages of foreign regard as being. During the period of the Bulgarian National Revival (18th-19th century), it was destroyed by ember in 1833 and later reconstructed amid 1834 and 1862 gone the in the yet to be happening happening of active Bulgarians from the collective country, below the famous architect Alexi Rilets. The erection of the residential buildings began in 1816, while a belfry was auxiliary to the Tower of Hrelyu in 1844. Neofit Rilski founded a theoretical in the monastery during the era. The monastery is known as beast one of the hideouts of Bulgarian revolutionaries such as Vassil Levski, Gotse Delchev, Peyo Yavorov, etc. The monastery higher, regarded as one of the foremost masterpieces of Bulgarian National Revival architecture, was avowed a national historical monument in 1976 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Since 1991 it has been certainly subordinate to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

On 25 May 2002, Pope John Paul II visited Rila monastery during his pilgrimage to Bulgaria. He was greeted by the Monastery's igumen, Bishop Ioan, who had been an observer at the Second Vatican Council.