Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo

Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo are a vivaciousness of monolithic churches, chapels and monasteries hewn out of sound stone and enormously exchange from new monastery complexes in Bulgaria, located oppressive the village of Ivanovo, 20 km south of Rousse, concerning the high rocky banks of the Rusenski Lom, 32 m above the river. The perplexing is noted for its pretty and ably-preserved medieval frescoes.

The caves in the region had been inhabited by monks from the 1220s, behind it was founded by the future Patriarch of Bulgaria Joachim, to the 17th century, where they hewed cells, churches and chapels out of hermetic rock. At the intensity of the monastery obscure, the number of churches was just about 40, even though the totaling premises were coarsely 300, most of which are not preserved today.

Second Bulgarian Empire rulers such as Ivan Alexander and Ivan Asen II frequently made donations to the unnamed, as evidenced by donor portraits in some of the churches. Other patrons included nobles from the capital Tarnovo and nearest loud medieval town Cherven, in the middle of which the monastery far away away along had strong ties in the 13-th and 14-th century. It was a centre of hesychasm in the Bulgarian lands in the 14th century and continued to exist in the in the future centuries of the Ottoman find of Bulgaria, but gradually decayed.

The monastery profound owes much of its fame to 13th- and 14th-century frescoes, preserved in 5 of the churches, which are thought of as fabulous examples of Bulgarian mediaeval art. The rock premises used by the monks append the St Archangel Michael Chapel ("The Buried Church"), the Baptistery, the Gospodev Dol Chapel, the St Theodore Church ("The Demolished Church") and the main Church, in the impression of the 14th-century murals in the latter one being arguably the most neatly-known of every single one in Ivanovo and noted as some of the most representative examples of Palaeologan art. Many century-antique inscriptions have in addition to been preserved in the monastical premises, including the adroitly-known indented inscription of the monk Ivo Gramatik from 13081309.

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.