Rila monastery

Rila monastery [Рилски манастир, Rilszki Manasztir] is -surprisingly- located in the Rila mountains, in the South-East part of Bulgaria at the height of 1147 m (3763 feet) and it's surrounded by the two highest peaks of Bulgaria, the 2729 m (8953 ft) Maljovitza is reachable in 4 hours, and the 2925 m (9596 ft) Musala is in 8 hours on foot.

If you find yourself in the Rila monastery, our recommendation is to pay attention to the mural paintings, and among them mostly to the "Hell" part.

A scene of the outside Hell-sequence on the main church

Свети Иван Рилски - Saint John of Rila

According to the legend/tradition a guy called Saint John of Rila (Свети Иван Рилски, Sveti Ivan Rilski) worked as a shepherd until he became 25 years old. Then he went to monastery, then became a monk. In order to continue his life in solitude and prayer he became a hermit. As we can read on the gate of Rila monastery, "rocks were his bed and sky was his ceiling", or something similar. He lived around 876-946. And after his death his successors built Rila monastery in the 10th century.
And the facts: "St. Ivan of Rila is considered the patron saint of Bulgaria and Bulgarian people, in his native country and among Bulgarian diaspora abroad.
The Sofia University of Mining and Geology got its name after him.

One of Chicago's two Bulgarian Orthodox churches St. Ivan of Rila Church is dedicated to him.




Mini-history of the Rila monastery:

After the building of it finished in the 10th century, the monastery became a religious center of the area and was led by the patriarch of Tarnovo (Тъ̀рново, Tirnovo, Turnovo) for centuries.

In the 14th century they were turned into a fortress by Hrelyo Dragovol, a feudal lord. Part of the walls and the tower today still remind of that period.

In the middle of 15th century was burned down, and the religious life started again in 1469 when Saint John's remains were brought back from the destroyed capital, Veliko Tarnovo. [these remains even took a short travel in Esztergom, the former Hungarian Capital]

Although sultans officially let the monastery function, the buildings were destroyed many times during the Ottoman authority.

In the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century the monastery was the symbol of Bulgarian national life and Slavic national conscience.

In 1833, a fire broke out and destroyed almost all (wooden) residential quarters.

In 1983 became the part of UNESCO World Heritage.



Personal experiences:

When I arrived, felt like I could stay for days there, but after 2 hours, walking around the place (we didn't want to pay the foreigner entry fee [as I remember it was 4 times more than the one for Bulgarians] for the little museum and my Bulgarian knowledge wasn't convincing enough - so, after 2 hours we tried to go back with a great experience behind us. I can just recommend to travel here for everyone... Probably the most impressing monastery in the Balkans...
And if you would like to stay in the neighborhood, hike a little - or much on the tourist roads around...

Title of picture: View towards 4 of the Seven Rila Lakes in Bulgaria, author: Ivelin Minkov

To get to the Seven (glacial) Lakes we recommend to try another way if you are not an extreme hiker. A (dutch? australian? french?) couple hiked 8 hours from the lakes to the monastery and they told they were coming downwards. They told us that they went upwards by some kind of little tourist train, but I found no information about it...

We haven't been there so I can't take responsibility for the facts below but this is everything I found on Internet:
The Seven Lakes Chalet where you can sleep under roof near the lakes is located in the height of 2196 m (7204 ft). Since Rila monastery lies on 1147 m (3763 feet) you can understand that it won't be a one hour easy walking. You can read a small summary from backpackers who walked up, but for sure not from Rila monastery.
If you would like to spend 839 euro without flight ticket for a 7-day horse-riding in Bulgaria (Rila monastery and Seven Lakes included) in August or September, check out the following page.
In the following, Seven lakes describing page is written that tourists usually take the roads from Sapareva Banya [Сапарева Баня] or from Rila monastery.

We heard that there's possibility to go to the the cave where Ivan Rilski was living according to the legend/tradition but unfortunately we didn't find the way. If anyone knows any information about it, we are delightful to hear (or read) it.


Arriving to Rila monastery (under construction):


- easy way with normal price - taxi: around ?? leva (euro, dollar) from Sofia (cirillic); ?? leva (euro, dollar) from Blagoevgrad (cirillic), around ?? leva (euro, dollar) cirillic from Dupnitsa [return?!]
- harder way, cheap - buses (from Sofia [information desk], Dupnica, Blagoevgrad, even if they don't say, nothing goes back on Sunday)
- not secure, but free - hitchhiking

-> the sure part -> we took a bus between 6 and 7 am from Dupnitsa [Ду̀пницa], the ticket cost 5 leva for person (2,5 euro, 3,5 dollar). Near the monastery gate it was written that a bus goes back between 10 and 11 am but there was no bus... So, the hiking couple and us began to walk down and we could reach Dupnitsa in an hour, the other (French) tourist couple called a taxi, they had to wait much and pay some amount... There are more buses from the close village called Rila (10-20 kms from the monastery)

Thanks for the pictures for Biso, Ivelin Minkov, and yeah, also for ourselves :)