Chiprovtsi Monastery

The Chiprovtsi Monastery is a small monastic centre which lies about 5km from the town of Chiprovtsi, dedicated to St. John of Rila. Chiprovtsi is a small town in northwestern Bulgaria, administratively part of Montana Province. It lies on the shores of the river Ogosta in the western Balkan Mountains, very close to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. A town of about 2,000 inhabitants, Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of Chiprovtsi Municipality that also covers nine nearby villages. Chiprovtsi is thought to have been founded in the Late Middle Ages as a mining and metalsmithing centre.

The first building to be constructed on the site was probably built in the tenth century during the First Bulgarian Empire, when the area became increasingly Christianised. The Chiprovtsi Monastery has since served as a centre of learning and religious study and is still a functioning monastery today. The monastery complex consists of a church, monastic cloister, small cemetery and ossuary on the ground floor, a chapel on the second, tower-bell on the third floor. The complex is surrounded by a stone wall with three entrances. Today, it is possible to visit the Chiprovtsi Monastery, though keep in mind that, as this is a working monastery, visiting times and access may be limited.