The Rila Monastery keeps contradictory relics behind its magically painted walls

A gate with large antlers hanging on it and beyond it – a quiet courtyard, fenced in by filigree-decorated walls, even more surprising with their colours and details against the background of the raw mountain that rises sharply behind.



The stately calm and the weight of time here are a context in which one can hardly imagine people exchanging blows and priests trampling on their black hats in the dust. And still – the Rila Monastery – Bulgaria’s holiest and most architecturally impressive religious complex, has been the scene of all kinds of violent outbursts for a long time. The last occasion was in 2004, when the two wings of the Bulgarian Orthodox church, which split in 1989, went as far as engaging in hand-to-hand combat over it.



Maybe these historical twists and turns aren’t so strange. Religious wars are among Christianity’s most natural fruits, as Schopenhauer remarked long ago. After all, the Rila Monastery is Bulgaria’s most important and largest monastery. The last conflict is only the latest of an endless series of battles for control over it through the ages. In the tenth century, its treasures were plundered, in the early Middle Ages it had spiritual power and in the late Medieval Period it gained political might. Later, Bulgaria’s communist regime was afraid of its ability to bring together the opposition. Now, the monastery unites an impressive cultural heritage, an influence over the rebirth of Christianity in Bulgaria and an opportunity for a nice income.

The Rila Monastery is always among the top five sites recommended by tourist guides. And with good reason: For visitors who are not familiar with the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is exotic; For those who are, it is important; For both kinds, it is beautiful. And it is also popular – during the day, its internal courtyard comes alive like a city market with hordes of Greek, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Serbian tourists.


Its church, decorated with an obvious Byzantine influence, has in its possession valuable artefacts of Bulgarian material culture. Adorned with icons painted by the best-known family of Bulgarian icon-painters, Zographski, with rare woodcarvings by masters from the nearby towns of Debar and Samokov, it also possesses a few dozen extraordinary relics.






This is Bulgaria’s largest monastery. It spreads over 8,800 square metres. Currently, the nearly 300 monastic cells are occupied by only six monks, who travel dozens of kilometres in order to run their daily errands. One of them acts as a hotel administrator at the service of visitors who would like to make a donation to the monastery in exchange for spending the night in it –10 leva (5 euro) per person.



The experience is worth it, as it includes slipping through the cat door after the main gate gets locked at 10pm and the opportunity to wander around the courtyard in perfect silence under the moonlight.

1,500 rice-grain-sized figurines One of the curious attractions of the Rila Monastery is the wooden crucifix, which took the monk Rafail 12 years to carve during the eighteenth century. The relic has a place of honour among the artefacts displayed in the smallish museum. Engraved on the half-a-metre tall cross, there are 140 Biblical scenes with over 1,500 participants, some of which are the size of a rice grain. The microscopic figures cover both sides of the entire cross. The monk, in an inhuman display of patience, carved out the relic with a needle and, as a result, lost his sight. The monastery’s museum also contains interesting church plate samples, documents certifying donations from Tsarist Russia and personally from Ivan the Terrible, as well as a fingerprint machine imported from Vienna. The images of devils trying to spoil people’s good deeds may not have great artistic value, but they are quite fun to look at.

The Monastery is located in a narrow hollow lodged between the Rila Mountain’s high forest rises along the course of the Rila River. A kilometre to the east, there is a view of the Malyovitsa peak, popular among mountain climbers, and further still are the paths to the Seven Rila Lakes. Trekking in the region is one of the favourite activities of Bulgarian mountaineers, who sometimes use the monastery as a base for their outings.

The closest trekking destination is the Ivan of Rila hill, which stands at about an hour and a half’s climb. At 150 metres over the monastery is the grave of James Bourchier (frequently misspelled as Boucher or Baucher) – the Balkans correspondent of The Times at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, and a strong supporter of Bulgaria’s political causes. Close by, there is also the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Church from the end of the eighteenth century.

The hand of Saint Ivan of Rila The monastery’s most important relics are usually well hidden from visitors. They include an icon of the Virgin Mary, which is considered to work miracles, and the relics of the monastery’s founder, Saint Ivan of Rila. A century ago, the saint’s hand used to be on display, popped out of a decorated coffin and worshippers would come to kiss it. After an overzealous follower of the saint tried to bite off a piece of the relics, however, the monks were forced to put them under glass for protection. One story about the remains is that the atheistically inclined communist leaders, troubled by the flow of worshippers they attracted, tried to take the saint’s body away. As a result of the monks’ prayers, the truck transporting them caught on fire and they were forced to bring them back. Now, the hand of Ivan of Rila is not only kept under a glass cover, but it is only taken out and displayed during big celebrations. His bones are placed among silver and stay hidden in a drawer, which the monks unlock under a tight schedule, not yielding to any of the tourists’ begging.

A grave for the heart of Tsar Boris III

The most controversial part of the Rila Monastery’s modern history is the grave of Tsar Boris III who ruled Bulgaria between 1918 and 1943. The heart of the former Bulgarian monarch and the father of Bulgaria’s Prime Minister in the early 2000s, Simeon of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, is kept in a glass jar at the monastery.

Before his death, Boris III wished to be buried here modestly, under a simple wooden cross. His will was executed, but when the communists came to power, their leader Georgi Dimitrov had the monarch’s remains moved to the Vrana Palace on Sofia’s outskirts and out of people’s sight. From there, their traces were lost.

The glass jar with the tsar’s heart was only found in the 1990s and placed back into the grave. Before that, however, a team of doctors had a careful look at it. The reason for that interest was the mystery surrounding the monarch’s death – he passed away in the prime of his life, following a short illness after a visit to Germany. In 2003, on the 60th anniversary of the death of Boris III, his son and the then-Prime Minister, Simeon of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, announced he was reconciled with the version that claimed the reason for his father’s death was a heart attack. In spite of that, however, some historians continue to support the thesis that the Nazis poisoned Boris III because he intended to withdraw Bulgaria from the ill-fated coalition with them in 1943. His son later claimed that he had checked all possible archives, including the Russian ones, but wasn’t able to find information about his father’s death.

The Hrelyova stone tower is the oldest preserved part of today’s monastery. It was built in 1335 for defence purposes and as a living space. Its last floor houses a chapel.

Read more about Bulgaria on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Bulgaria