BATCHKOVO MONASTERY (БАЧКОВСКИ БАЧКОВСКИ)

This superb hillside monastery is the second most important in the country after Rila. It was built in 1083 by two Georgian brothers, Grigoriii and Abbassi Bakouriani, commanders of the army of the Byzantine emperor Alexis ^I Comnenus. They founded a school there as well as the first Georgian hospital. During the Second Bulgarian Empire, the monastery was an important religious and cultural center. After the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule, the last patriarch of the kingdom of Veliko Tarnovo, Evtimii, was exiled to the monastery for the rest of his life.

After its destruction by the Ottomans, the monastery was rebuilt in the late ^15th century.

Sveta-Bogoroditsa Church. Built in 1604, which houses the miraculous icon of the Virgin, which is believed to have been painted in the early centuries of Christianity. The murals (^19th century), some painted by Zahari Zograf, are blackened by time and have not been restored. The iconostasis dates from the ^17th century.

Ossuary. The oldest building of the monastery, which dates from the ^eleventh century, houses frescoes (^twelfth, ^fourteenth and ^nineteenth centuries). It is located a few hundred meters from the monastery itself.

Old refectory. Built in 1601 at the same time as the monastic kitchen, it is also decorated with beautiful murals.

Sveta-Troitsa Church. The only building that survived the Ottoman invasion. Built in the ^XIIth century, it conceals superb frescos of 1846.