Bachkovo Monastery
Good to know
- Best time to go
- April to October
- Budget
- $
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
Bachkovo Monastery is the second largest Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria, founded in 1083 by two Georgian military commanders in the service of the Byzantine Empire. It lies in the Arda River gorge in the Rhodope Mountains, surrounded by dense oak and beech forest. The ossuary — a two-storey church built over a charnel house — contains 17th-century frescoes in an unusually intimate vaulted space, and the main church holds a revered icon of the Virgin Mary.
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