Bachkovo Monastery

The Bachkovo Monastery was founded in 1083 by the Byzantine millitary commander, Georgian by origin, Grigorij Bakuriani and his brother Abbasij. Grijorij builds up the monastery in his own feudal lands, and according to the Georgian tradition he dedicates it to the woman-mother, thus naming it The Petrichki Monastery (after the name of the nearby fortress).

 In 1206 Tsar Kaloyan conquerred the Rhodope Mountains and the Bachkovo Monastery occured to be within the boundaries of the Bulgarian State. After 1344, Tsar Ivan Alexander consolidated the Bulgarian rule over the Rhodopes, and the monastery became an important medieval centre of religion and learning.

After the Ottomans invading Bulgaria with fire and sword, the Bulgarian Patriarch Evtimij of Turnovo was exiled to that monastery and created the Bachkovo School of Education there .

The monastery library has preserved many valuable incunabula and old manuscripts. Its most remarkable feature, however, is the unique paintings to be seen everywhere in the churches and the Ossuary - the figure of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander is discernible on the 11th and 14th century murals, in the Refectory (1601), in the Assumption of the Holy Virgin main church (1604), and in The Holy Trinity and St. Nicholas church (1840), which contains some of the first murals painted by the eminent National Revival artist Zachary Zograph.