Self-guided tour in Rila Monastery entrance ticket
Enjoy a day out at the Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, with your entrance ticket. Better known as the Rila Monastery, it is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. The Rila Monastery is located in 1147 meters altitude in the middle of the fragrant coniferou.
The Rila Monastery was founded in the 30-th years of X century on the place of the Old Anchoress in Rila Mountain. While the monastery has been existing, it was many times rebuilt, destroyed and reconstructed.
Today the Rila Monastery has had this appearance since the middle of the previous century. It is the biggest and the most respected Bulgarian monastery.
The creator of the Rila Monastery was the first Bulgarian hermit Ivan Rilsky (876-946), he chose to live in this way as a method of spiritual perfection and a way to express his protest against the suppression of the high moral rules of the real Christianity. Born in the 70-th years of IX century, he was a witness of the decline of the First Bulgarian Kingdom at the time of king Peter I and Saint Ivan Rilsky became the most respected saint in the Orthodox Christianity in that time.
At the time of the Byzantine slavery the established brotherhood was turned into a monastery. At the beginning of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom the relics of Saint Ivan Rilsky was displaced to the capital of the country Veliko Tarnovo as the most important relic for the Bulgarians.