The Monastery of the
Dormition of the Most Holy
Mother of God () or, as it is more commonly called, the Troyan Monastery is the third largest monastery in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
. It is located in the northern part of the country in the
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...
and was founded no later than the end of the 16th century.
The monastery is situated on the banks of the
Cherni Osam near
Oreshak, a village 10 km from
Troyan in
Lovech Province
Lovech Province (, former name Okrug, Lovech okrug) is one of the 28 provinces of Bulgaria, lying at the northern centre of the country. It is named after its main city: Lovech. As of December 2009, the population of the area was151,153. , and is a popular tourist destination.
The main church of the monastery was reconstructed near the end of
Ottoman rule during the
Bulgarian National Revival
The Bulgarian Revival (, ''Balgarsko vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and ), sometimes called the Bulgarian National Revival, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian pe ...
period by a master-builder called Konstantin in 1835. The ornate interior and exterior of the church were painted between 1847 and 1849 by
Zahari Zograph, a popular Bulgarian painter of the time, who also painted the central church of the
Rila Monastery
The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery ("Sveti Ivan Rilski" (), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in th ...
, the largest monastery in Bulgaria. Many of the "moral and
social experiments" of art at the time such as ''Doomsday'' and ''Wheel of Life'' were reproduced at Troyan. One highly controversial move by Zograph was to paint his image around one of the windows in the back of the church.
The
iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis () is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere withi ...
in the central church is a wood carving dating to 1839.
The Troyan Monastery is also, since the 17th century, the home of one of the holiest icons in
Bulgarian Orthodoxy, the ''Three-Handed Virgin''.
Many people make a pilgrimage to this monastery on St. George's Day because of an icon of St. George in the main church.
The room in which Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski was hiding and meeting with other revolutionaries during the Ottoman period is a museum.
Gallery
Image:Trojan-manastir-1876.jpg, An 1876 drawing of the monastery
Image:Courtyard of Troyan Monastery.JPG, The courtyard inside the monastery
Image:Three Handed Virgin of Troyan Monastery.JPG, The ''Three-Handed Virgin'' icon
Image:Троянски манастир 1.JPG, Mural paintings on the church "Holy Mother of God" (in the monastery)
Image:Троянски манастир 2.JPG, Another example of mural paintings
Image:Troyan Monastery plan.png, Plan
External links
Troyan MonasteryTravel Bulgaria: Troyan MonasteryTroyan Monastery*
ttp://www.sofiabulgariatravel.com/3-miracle-working-icons-in-sofia.html The legend about Three-Handed Virgin icon
{{Authority control
Christian monasteries in Bulgaria
Bulgarian Orthodox monasteries
Balkan mountains
Buildings and structures in Lovech Province
Tourist attractions in Lovech Province