It can
be briefly described as a combination of monumental
architecture and rich history.
It was founded in the X th century by the monk
Ivan Rilski and is the country's spiritual and
cultural temple with 16 000 volume library including
134 manuscripts from 15th to 19th century.
Its present-day
place, 119 km south of Sofia ( the capital) ,
is the one in which it stood during the 14th century,
when the noble man Dragovol Hrelyo settled in
the monastery as an independent ruler. In 1335
he built the five-storey defense tower, topped
by the Transfiguration Chapel, fragments of whose
murals can still be seen today. By the end of
14th century, the Rila Monastery had turned into
a powerful feudal entity with many villages, lands
and properties.
The monastery's
unquestionable authority influenced the Turkish
sultans who confirmed the rights granted by the
Bulgarian kings. Irrespective of this, the Monastery
was devastated around the mid-15th century.
It started rising again after the relics of Ivan
Rilski were brought from Veliko Turnovo-the capital-
here in 1469 (passing through the whole of Bulgaria
as a nationwide patriotic procession). The fate
of the Monastery became the concern of the entire
Bulgarian nation. A new centre was needed for
the cultural life, which had declined or was transferred
abroad. Many of the time's most outstanding men
of letters gradually started gathering in the
monastery.
The church's
interior is extremely impressive. The murals were
painted between 1840 and 1848 by some of the finest
artists of the time. The twenty donors' portraits
in the church mark the beginning of Bulgarian
secular painting, of realistic portraits. This
gallery of art was enriched by the murals in the
churches and chapels outside the monastery. Thirty-six
figural scenes, the figures of the Old Testament
Kings, apostles martyrs, an exceptionally rich
ornamentation of flowers, birds and stylized figures
- this, in short, is the subject-matter of the
main carved altar of the Holy Virgin Church fashioned
by four masters over a period of five years.
Stunningly
carved is the entrance gate of the church of the
nobleman Hrelyo, preserved to- day in the monastery's
museum of history. The museum also contains a
multitude of gold and silver church plates, collections
of coins, weapons, jewelry, weave materials and
embroidery. A unique masterpiece is the carved
cross of the Monk Raphael worked over a period
of 12 years and which cost his sight. The library
contains 16000 volumes including 134 manuscripts
from l5th to 19th century, numerous documents.
The donations received from all parts of the country
represent a very rich ethnographic collection
- a national collection of works of arts and crafts.
Retaining the names of the donors and the exact
date of donation, they represent an original chronicle
of the national consciousness, of those pure patriotic
feelings and hopes which were inspired throughout
centuries in every Bulgarian by the Rila Monastery
.