Visiting monasteries in Bulgaria is one of this country's greatest delights. It is hard not to fall for their splendid scenery, beautiful old churches, naivist murals of saints and devils, smell of old wood, supposedly healing icons and sacred springs, atmosphere of bygone times and stories of medieval monks and Revival Period revolutionaries. The Rila and the Bachkovo monasteries are, understandably, inevitable, but once you have checked them out, there are scores of other places worth exploring. Here is a brief list.

Cherepish Monastery

Deep in the stunning Iskar Gorge, Cherepish Monastery was supposedly founded in the 14th century and destroyed by the invading Ottomans, reviving itself in 1660. The compound you see today is a fine example of Revival Period architecture with an 1844 church with a fine woodcarved iconostasis.

The mansions in the outer yard were all donations from wealthy sponsors. The Rashidova House was built by a local Muslim lord after the monastery's supposedly miraculous spring water healed his daughter. The spring is still there, hidden under rocks covered with lush greenery.

As is the custom with many holy places in Bulgaria, the Cherepish Monastery holds a number of macabre stories. Folk etymology indicates that its name is derived from cherep, or skull. The monastery is surrounded by white cliffs that do look like skulls with their black eyeballs. In addition, there is a legend that a major battle with the Ottomans took place there, leaving the area littered with bones for many years. The ossuary by the monastery contains bones and skulls belonging to the last members of the revolutionary band led by poet Hristo Botev in 1876.

Glozhene Monastery

Seen from afar, Glozhene Monastery challenges both the laws of physics and common sense: it is perched on a needle-like rock, just like the famous Greek monasteries in Meteora.

According to a legend, the monastery was founded in 1224 by a prince from Kiev who followed a miracle-working icon of St George. The icon flew up to the top of the rock and stayed there, suggesting it was driven there by a divine hand.

In the 19th century Glozhene Monastery was a safehouse for revolutionaries seeking to end Ottoman rule, including Vasil Levski. The room where he hid can be visited.

An earthquake in 1913 inflicted severe damage to the original church and a new one was built in its place, in 1930. It looks a bit out-of-place in an Orthodox abode as it evokes Protestant churches. It was built by a Bulgarian architect who studied in Germany. Inside, in a heavy silver encasement, is the supposedly miracle-working medieval icon of St George that inspired the monastery's creation.

Seven Thrones Monastery

One of Bulgaria's more unusual monasteries is just off the highway passing through the picturesque Iskar Gorge. The compound of Seven Thrones has all the hallmarks of Revival Period architecture: a fort-like building with a grassy courtyard and picturesque wooden verandas.

The church, however, is like nothing else anywhere in Bulgaria. Built in the 16th century, it is tiny, dark and damp, made of rough boulders. It has not one, not two, not three, but seven altars. Hence its name, Seven Thrones Church. Why this architectural curiosity was created is lost in history.

According to one legend, the church was built by seven Bulgarian noblemen in the Middle Ages. According to another, it was the gift of seven brigands fighting the Ottomans.

The giant sequoia in the monastery garden is not that old – it was planted about a century ago.

Dryanovo Monastery

Tucked in the canyon formed by the River Dryanovska, Dryanovo Monastery is overlooked by precipitous cliffs. In one of them there is a cave, Bacho Kiro, that was inhabited as early as the Palaeolithic, 100,000-10,000 years ago.

Whether the monastery was founded by early 13th century King Kaloyan is an open question. It is certain, however, that it was already in existence in the late 17th century. In the 1840s the monastery compound was renovated with two churches and a guesthouse for over 90 pilgrims. Shortly thereafter Dryanovo Monastery became a hotbed for revolutionary activity, which culminated during the 1876 April Uprising. The monastery was turned into a safehouse for weapons, munitions and food. At the end of the uprising a band of rebels barricaded themselves inside the monastery and held out for nine days against the Ottomans. They were eventually killed and the monastery was put to the torch.

Dryanovo Monastery revived itself as early as 1877, but its main church had no murals. Its decoration was the pock-holes left by bullets during the hostilities. The remains of the fighters were laid in an ossuary constructed in 1897 by an Italian architect.

Sokolski Monastery

Sokolski Monastery differs from most other monasteries in terms of architecture. Usually, the most important building in a monastery compound, the church, dominates over all other buildings. Not so at Sokolski Monastery. Here, the church is at a lower level. It is a small, exquisite one-dome building with a narthex. Its outer walls were decorated with murals in 1862. The most important icons depicting The Mother of God and Jesus Christ were painted by famed artist Zahari Zograf. Today they are in the monastery chapel.

Inside its courtyard there is another fine example of Revival Period architecture, an 1862 water fountain by master builder Kolyu Ficheto.

For most of its history Sokolski Monastery was populated by monks. In 1959 the Communist authorities abolished the Gabrovo nunnery, and the remaining nuns moved into Sokolski Monastery.

Troyan Monastery

The third largest monastery in Bulgaria appeared around 1600 on the banks of the Cherni Osam River, founded by a monk or a pair of monks (legends disagree) who came from the monastic community of Mount Athos. 

Soon, pilgrims and monks began to flock to Troyan, attracted by the supposedly miraculous copy of an icon of the Mother of God from Mount Athos that is still kept in the monastery. By the first half of the 18th century, Troyan Monastery was large and prosperous, and was instrumental in promoting Bulgarian education. After 1785, the abbot initiated the complete renovation of the compound, which continued for more than 30 years. The result was the living quarters that you see today, forming the two inner courtyards of the monastery.

The small, stone church in the inner court was built in 1835. A decade later Zahari Zograf decorated it with murals that are the main reason why the monastery is recognised as an artistic gem. Standing out among them is the so-called Wheel of Life: an allegory of the course of human life, with the hopes of youth, the ambition and confidence of maturity, and the sorrows of old age, all played out against the never-ending circle of the changing seasons.

Golyamo Bukovo Monastery

The modern and to a high degree unusual murals that cover the church of the Strandzha's only monastery are the main reason to take on the long and winding road to the village of Golyamo Bukovo.

According to legend, the monastery was built in the 1870s by a local villager who had a vision of the Mother of God who healed him and demanded the construction of the monastery in return. In 1954, it was listed as a monument of culture, but in the 1980s the Communist authorities turned it into a youth summer camp. After the collapse of Communism the monastery was all but abandoned. Its buildings stood in ruins and the locals used what remained of it as a pigsty.

Then a monk arrived and took matters into his own hands. He rebuilt the monastery and invited some art students to paint the church. The new frescoes have little to do with the church canon as they conform mainly to the textbook definition of psychedelia – especially the flowers enveloping the church columns that grow, well, incredibly high.

Kremikovtsi Monastery

Rare murals created in the first century of the Ottoman domination and a tragic story: Kremikovtsi Monastery is a hidden gem close to Sofia that few foreigners visit.

The monastery existed since the Middle Ages but was destroyed by the Ottomans. In 1493 a wealthy citizen of Sofia, one Radivoy, restored it in memory of his children, Todor and Dragana, who had died in a plague epidemic.

The small church Radivoy built still stands in the monastery courtyard, and so is the mural depicting him with his deceased children.

It may look a bit modest, but Kremikovtsi Monastery played an important role in retaining Bulgarian medieval culture in the first centuries of Ottoman rule. It had a school where church books were being copied. One example is the so-called Kremikovtsi Gospel, dated 1497, which was placed in a remarkable silver encasing in the 18th century.

The monastery now has a second church, built in 1926.

Rozhen Monastery

Up the road from Melnik, a popular tourist destination, is one of Bulgaria's most fascinating monasteries. Rozhen Monastery is located among eroding sandy pyramids, with the Pirin filling the horizon. With uncertain but probable medieval origins, the monastic abode is a fortress-like compound with the shape of an irregular hexagon. Inside, it is a delightful and peaceful place, with cobble-stone pavement, a small church painted with medieval murals, and living quarters adorned with wooden porches, vines climbing on them. An old water fountain is running, filling the air with its murmur.

The monastery we see today is the result of building and rebuilding, painting and repainting, that took place between the 16th and the 18th centuries. The fact that there were no later additions make the monastic church a rarity.

The copy of a supposedly miraculous icon of The Mother of God is the monastery's greatest treasure. Reportedly, it is also miraculous, just like the original. On the monastery's high day, 8 September, the icon is taken out with a solemn procession, attended by hundreds of believers.

Lopushanski Monastery

The Lopushanski Monastery near Vratsa was founded by three monks in 1850-1853, on the site of an older abode destroyed by the Ottomans during the 1688 Chiprovtsi Uprising. 

Its main church is considered to be the third largest monastic church in Bulgaria. According to a legend, it copies the architecture of the main church of the Rila Monastery. The builder, one Master Lilo, had to visit Rila twice, and make an exact model of its church using... willow branches.

The intriguing shallow reliefs on the church's walls can also be attributed to Master Lilo. They are crude and primitive, and depict cherubs' heads, moustachioed men wielding guns and swords, suns and moons, and strange animals resembling camels.

The monastery lacks a belfry. Its five bells are hung on trees in the yard. Two of those used to belong to Zhivovtsi and Kalimanitsa, two nearby villages that were evacuated and obliterated in the 1960s and 1970s owing to the construction of the nearby Ogosta Reservoir.