Bachkovo Monastery
Much has already been written and said about the beauty and uniqueness of the Rhodope Mountains, and about the impressive Thracian and megalithic sites. In addition to them, there are several important sites related to the Christian Bulgaria route, the most important of which are the Monastery of Bachkovo and the Cross Forest.
The second most important monastery in Bulgaria and the most important in the Rhodope Mountains is the monastery in Bachkovo. The monastery was first built at the end of the 11th century by monks who came from Georgia with the support of the Byzantine authorities, probably to balance the growing influence of the Bogomil heresy. It was dedicated to Mary’s ascension to heaven (the Bogomils opposed the worship of Mary as the Mother of God). Since then, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
In the 13th century, Tsar Ivan Asen, one of the greatest rulers of the Second Bulgarian Empire, adopted the place and built a fortress not far from it at the mouth of the Chaplara River. When the Ottomans conquered the Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo at the end of the 14th century, the last independent Bulgarian patriarch, Avtimi, arrived at the monastery together with his students, and there he continued the school of literature and religious education founded by him in Veliko Tarnovo, spiritually fortifying Bulgaria for the dark centuries of occupation.
The only thing that has survived from this period is an ancient burial structure with two floors and a room in which there are 14 graves. It is a building unmatched anywhere else in the world, located about 300 meters from the monastery, that contains paintings and frescoes, including a 14th-century fresco of King Ivan Asen holding the church in his hand.
The monastery consists of two courtyards surrounded by buildings organized like a defending wall. It was rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century, with the great courtyard having a beautiful cathedral built on top of an older structure destroyed by the Ottomans. In the narthex, you can see beautiful paintings from the 17th century showing the two donors to the church, officials and high-ranking businessmen from Istanbul. The interior of the church is decorated with paintings from the 19th century. The iconostasis is an artistic woodwork from the 18th century. But the most important part of the church is an ancient miracle-working icon from the 13th century of the Merciful Mary, brought here from Georgia. Many come to receive blessings from the icon.
On the north side of the courtyard is the monks’ dining room, the refectory, with wonderful paintings, including landscape scenes from the 19th century. On the outside of the building, there is a panoramic painting, the largest of its kind in the Balkans, showing the history of the monastery. Among the figures seen is the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus, the founder of the Comnenian dynasty, who gave the directive to establish the monastery in the 11th century. This emperor was known for his struggle against the Bogomil heresy, and his daughter Anna Komnena wrote the most comprehensive treatise against the Bogomils that we have from that period.
Next to the dining room, there is an opening to the additional northern courtyard, where there is another church, named after the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Its foundations are probably from the 12th century, and the beautiful paintings in it were painted in the 19th century by Zahari Zograf from the painting school of Samokov. At the end of the courtyard is the museum of the monastery with religious artifacts, including the sword of Frederick Barbarossa, the German king who led the Third Crusade—no one knows how it got there.
Bachkovo Monastery is a pilgrimage site. From a Jewish point of view, its importance lies in the fact that this is where two righteous people are buried: Patriarch Kiril and Metropolitan Stefan, who were largely responsible for saving Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust.
