{"id":204,"date":"2007-11-29T22:40:05","date_gmt":"2007-11-29T12:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/?p=204"},"modified":"2007-11-29T22:40:05","modified_gmt":"2007-11-29T12:40:05","slug":"rila-monastery-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/rila-monastery-bulgaria","title":{"rendered":"Rila Monastery &#8211; Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"float: right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-1009507070974015\";\r\ngoogle_alternate_ad_url = \"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/google_adsense_script.html\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-06-30: TSBlog 300x250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"2928184950\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"FF6600\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"339933\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/DSC_2665.jpg.html\" title=\"Rila Monastery\">Rila Monastery<\/a> is situated on the southwestern slopes of the Rila Mountains, 1147 meters above sea level\u00a0.\u00a0 It was founded by <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27948-2\/DSC_2665.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Rila Monastery\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Rila Monastery\" \/>Ivan Rilski or St John of Rila in the 10th century.\u00a0 Previously, it was situated 3 km northeast of the present building.\u00a0 It beautiful setting, amazing architecture and history make it one of Bulgaria&#8217;s most important cultural <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"80\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27803-1\/IMG_7808.jpg?resize=80%2C115\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"John of Rila, Rila Monastery\" height=\"115\" style=\"width: 80px; height: 115px\" title=\"John of Rila, Rila Monastery\" \/>monuments and a huge tourist attraction.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/IMG_7808.jpg.html\" title=\"John of Rila, Rila Monastery\">John of Rila <\/a>was a hermit canonized by the Orthodox Church. He chose this isolated valley to escape the savagery of feudal life at the end of the 9th century and his displeasure at the laxity of the normal established monasteries.\u00a0 His monastery was plundered during the 18th century and before repairs started, the structure burned down in 1833.\u00a0 The resurrection of Rila Monastery was presented as a religious and patriotic duty and public <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27944-2\/DSC_2662.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Tower of Hrelyu - Rila Monastery\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Tower of Hrelyu - Rila Monastery\" \/>donations poured in throughout the last century.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/DSC_2662.jpg.html\" title=\"Tower of Hrelyu - Rila Monastery\">Tower of Hrelyu<\/a>, an impressive stone tower, stands in the middle of the inner courtyard.\u00a0 This is the\u00a0oldest <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27922-2\/DSC_2653.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Residential Section - Rila Monastery\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Residential Section - Rila Monastery\" \/>building of the complex, built by the local feudal Sebastocrator Hrelyu in 1334-1335.\u00a0 A small church of similar vintage stands next to the tower.\u00a0 The entire complex is quite impressive for its size.\u00a0 In the 4 storey <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/DSC_2653.jpg.html\" title=\"Residential Section - Rila Monastery\">residential section <\/a>there are\u00a0no less than 300 monks\u2019 cells together with 4 chapels, an abbot\u2019s room, a kitchen, a library and guestrooms for donors. The kitchen is particularly interesting for its really <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27934-2\/IMG_7846.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Cooking vessels - Rila Monastery\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Cooking vessels - Rila Monastery\" \/>huge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/IMG_7846.jpg.html\" title=\"Cooking vessels - Rila Monastery\">cooking vessels<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/RilaMonastery\/IMG_7833.jpg.html\" title=\"Wall paintings - Rila Monastery\">wall paintings <\/a>and richly decorated frescoes in the main church are pretty extensive and amazing.\u00a0 There were done by many artists in 1846,\u00a0but it was only the famous Zahari Zograf who signed below his works.\u00a0 <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/27880-2\/IMG_7833.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Wall Paintings\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Wall Paintings\" \/>Zograf&#8217;s\u00a0work can be still seen in quite a number of monasteries today. Besides, the monastery treasures a number of valuable icons painted in the 14th-19th centuries.<\/p>\n<p>Rila Monastery was declared a national historical monument in 1976 and in 1983 was nominated\u00a0a UNESCO World Heritage Site.\u00a0 This is a must see for any visits to Bulgaria.<\/p>\n<p>Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rila Monastery is situated on the southwestern slopes of the Rila Mountains, 1147 meters above sea level\u00a0.\u00a0 It was founded by Ivan Rilski or St John of Rila in the 10th century.\u00a0 Previously, it was situated 3 km northeast of the present building.\u00a0 It beautiful setting, amazing architecture and history make it one of Bulgaria&#8217;s [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulgaria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - 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