Construction of Monastery of Saint John of Rila

The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, usually called the Rila Monastery, is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria, in a wooded valley of the Rila mountains. It was founded by the followers of the hermit Saint John of Rila during the First Bulgarian Empire, and it became a religious and cultural centre that kept the Bulgarian language and literature alive under Ottoman rule. The medieval buildings were destroyed by fire, and the monastery was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, in the style of the Bulgarian National Revival, with colourful frescoes by artists such as Zahari Zograf. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.

Open on the timeline