Some ten kilometres to the left a road leads to Gorna Oryahovitsa (pop. 39,000) — the largest railway junction of North Bulgaria. It was a craft and trade centre during Ottoman rule. After the Liberation it developed as a railway station following the construction of the Varna-Sofia line. Hotels: Raho- vets, two stars, 5 floors, 3 suites and 146 beds, restaurant, night club, national tavern, cafe (tel. 4-16-30).
Return to E-85 and enter the picturesque Derventa Gorge, where, facing each other on the rocks, are the Tiansfiguration Monastery and the Holy Trinity Monastery.
The Transfiguration Monastery is 6 km north of Veliko lumovo. The ruins of the old mediaeval monastery are some half a kilometre in the woods, south of the present-day monastery. It was probably founded during the reign of Ivan Shishrnan, in the 1570s. It fell into oblivion for several centuries, after repeated plundering. The frescoes were painted by Zahari Zograph of the Samokov school of painting. He painted the whole church and icons from 1849 to 1851. Interesting from an ethnographic point of view is the Doomsday fresco painted on the eastern side of the vestibule. Also remarkable is the Wheel of Life fresco on the outside southern altar wall, showing human life from a philosophical point of view.
In 1838 the Tryavna master-engravers made a magnificent iconostasis which is one of the masterpieces of the Tryavna school of wood-carving. They also made the iconostasis in the small Anunciation Church. The large monastery library holds valuable incunabula, historical documents, etc.
The Holy Trinity Monastery is situated among rocks op posite the Transfiguration Monastery, on the steep banks of the River Yantra. It is supposed to have been founded by Patriarch Euthimius. Several prominent literary figures worked there.
Veliko Turnovo
Veliko Turnovo (pop. 63,500; is one of Bulgaria's most beautiful towns. It was capital of the Second Bulgarian State from 1187 to 1396. There was a Byzantine fortress on the Tsarevets hill in the 5th-6th century, built by Justinian, which was captured by the Slavs in the 7th century sofia sightseeing. In 1185 Turnovo was the centre of a nationwide uprising led by the brothers Assen and Peter. The uprising was successful^eter was declared Tsar and Tumovo capital of the new Bulgarian state, which lasted for two centuries until Bulgaria fell under Ottoman domination. The town maintained lively commercial links with Dubrovnik, Genoa and Venice. It became one of the largest literary centres of its time. Magnificent works were written here, some of which are still presented — Manasses9 Chronicle (in the Vatican library) and Tsar Ivan Alexander's Tetraevan- gelia (in British Museum, London). In 1350 Theodosius of l umovo founded Kilifarevo Monastery near Turnovo which was a literary school.
Students from all over the country, from Russia, Wallachia and Serbia, studied here; Patriarch Euthimius was among them. He founded a second literary school in the Holy Trinity Monastery, known as the Turnovo School. His disciples, Grigorii Tsamblak and Konstantin Kostenechki, continued their teachings in Wallachia, Serbia and Russia. On July 17, 1393, after a three-month siege, 1 urnovgrad fell under Ottoman domination. The capital was burnt, destroyed and plundered, but the spirit of people remained alive and many uprisings broke out in the 16th, l7th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century the town was a major craft centre. A Bulgarian men's school was opened followed by a girl's school in 1845. In 1835 the town was the centre of an uprising, known as the Velcho conspiracy. In 1870 Vassil Levski founded the Turno- vo revolutionary committee. During the Uprising of April 1876 Tumovo was the centre of the First Revolutionary District. Troops led by General I.V.Gurko liberated the town on June 25, 1877.
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