Rila Monastery Part I

The Rila Monastery, located in the Rila Mountains southeast of Dupnista, is the most important monastery in Bulgaria and is a major tourist destination. Two weeks ago Shirley's host rented a 17-passenger bus to take our group of trainees as well as neighbors on a day trip to the monastery. The cost of the bus for each of us was only 10 leva, about $8. What follows are Shirley's pictures from the trip.

The history of the Rila Monastery goes back over 1000 years. A holy man, St. John of Rila, became a hermit in these mountains because he did not like the way that the people were living. He lived in a small cave on the mountainside and slept on the ground. He began to preach to those who would come to his hermit’s retreat. A group of followers decided to build a monastery nearby and continue to learn from his teaching.

Thus the first Rila Monastery was built in the years of the 10th century. The monastery grew in importance and size and reached it’s apogee in the late 14th and early 15th century when over 300 monks lived here. During the Turkish occupation monastery was burned and destroyed several times beginning in the late 15th century.

By the early 1800s the monastery was again as large as the present day but a devastating fire in 1833 destroyed all the wooden parts of the monastery, particularly the monks living cells. Because of the importance of the monastery to the local people, a group of 3,000 master carpenters came to the site after the fire and rebuilt all the wooden parts in just a couple years.

The main church was built in 1837. We visited the monastery on a Sunday and observed some of the morning church service. Because this was a weekend, there were also hundreds of tourists both from Bulgaria and from around the world.

This is just a small portion of the three story (plus basement) monks quarters that completely surround the interior courtyard. The outside walls of the monastery are stone with a few small windows causing the exterior to look more like a medievil fortress than a religious establishment.

In some sections the monastery is four stories high, plus basement. The whole structure is an irregular rectangle and is huge.

Because this was Sunday morning, there were priests on hand to greet worshipers after the service. He and the woman at left with the pan were giving out small pieces of bread which has religious synificance.

I loved this cupola hanging off the top floor.

This tower inside the courtyard was built in the 1300s and is the oldest part of the structure still extant.

This small chapel with the red stripes was also built in the 1300s and is only a few years younger than the midievil tower.

There were probably more than 1,000 tourists and worshipers here on this day.

The gift shop was mobbed by people wanting to buy icons and other religious items.

Obviously we were enchanted by the design, colors, and size of the monastery. Every picture of the monks quarters on this blog is of a different portion of this huge place.