It is situated in the folds of the Balkan Range, some 12 km from the town of Troyan. It was built in the year 1840. The frescoes in its church were painted by the best icon-painters of the Samokov School, including Zahari Zograph. Tourist accommodation is available in the monastery.
ALADJA MONASTERY
It stands 14 km northeast of Varna and 3 km west of the Zlatni Pyassatsi resort complex, in one of the most picturesque areas of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It is an old monastery carved out of the rocks, consisting of an upper and a lower part. The cells are two and a half metres wide and two metres deep. The length of the church is 11.70 m and its width – 5 m. It is barely 2 m high. On the eastern wall is the altar, in which there are two niches with the comparatively best-preserved mural paintings. Although poorly preserved in general, the murals of the monastery reveal a remarkable development of mediaeval pictorial art. The monastery was most probably founded in the 13th-14th century private tour guide ephesus. 300 m from the monastery are the catacombs – rooms carved out of the rock which were probably used by the monks as dwellings.
The monastery can be reached from Zlatni Pyassatsi on foot along a forest path, or by bus along a panoramic road. From there the road goes on to Varna via Vinitsa village. There are souvenir shops and pavilions for snacks and drinks as well as a fountain.
ZEMEN MONASTERY
It is situated 25 km from Kyustendil on the railway line to Sofia, and is well known for its fine mural paintings dating from the middle of the 14th century. They are very well preserved and among the frescoes which are portraits of contemporaries are those of Deyan, a feudal lord of Kyustendil, and of his wife Doya, patrons of the monastery.
One can travel to the monastery by train as well as by car from Kyustendil or Sofia.
BOYANA CHURCH
At the foot of Mount Vitosha and 10 km from Sofia, stands a unique monument of Bulgarian art — the small Boyana Church, built in the 11th and 13th centuries. Exceptional mural paintings have been preserved in it in an excellent condition. The, unknown Boyana master has succeeded in expressing character traits on the faces of more than 300 large and small human figures, harmoniously distributed in two small compartments. He went beyond the conventionality of the period and became a precursor of the European Renaissance.
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