Troyan · Central Mountains · Bulgaria

Troyan Monastery

monasteryfrescoeshistoricgoogle verified

easy

10/10

best: morning, spring, autumn

serene, artistic, forested

A local would say...

A 16th-century mountain monastery whose church walls are covered in 19th-century murals by Bulgaria's greatest religious painter.

Bulgaria's third-largest monastery, some 10km southeast of Troyan in a forested mountain setting, boasting powerful frescoes by Zahari Zograf — the leading mural artist of the Bulgarian National Revival period. All the striking murals inside the Church of the Holy Virgin were painted in the 1840s in Zograf's characteristically vivid and searching style. The 16th-century monastery survived multiple Turkish raids between the 16th and 18th centuries.