In my proposed three-day itinerary for Sofia, I wrote about a day trip to Boyana Church and Rila Monastery. You could either travel there by yourself or you could join a tour. In this post, I will describe my experiences with these sights.
I booked a tour with Viator which cost only 35 euro, which is a steal compared to the Delphi Day Trip which set me back 80 euro.
In this post I will focus on the sights rather than the tour. Our tour guide Martin had a sarcastic sense of humour, which resulted in him insulting people all day long. He sighed and shouted when people couldn’t understand him and his “jokes” were often awkward and unfunny. Usually tour guides tell interesting back stories of a sight, not Martin. He told us his side of things and when someone asked him more details he would huff and puff and ignore them. Believe me, it happened to me twice… I’d like to forget about him as quickly as possible so let’s go to the first sight!
Boyana Church
The first stop on the tour was Boyana Church, a UNESCO inscribed Heritage Site, which is located in the outskirts of Sofia. If you choose not to book a tour, you can easily take a local bus to this destination. The fact that my tour stopped at Boyana Church was an added benefit as I had booked the tour to visit Rila Monastery which is much further away from Sofia.
The reason this church is special is because it has been constructed and enlarged during different centuries and the older parts have always been maintained as they were built. As such, the building is a mix-match of different styles and it doesn’t look like one structure.
The oldest section (the eastern church – which is on the furthest right in the top picture and barely visible in the bottom picture) is a small one-apse cross-vaulted church. It was built in the late 10th century.This section was enlarged in the 13th century by the construction of a second two-storey building next to it (in a similar style). There was supposed to be a family tomb here, but no bodies have ever been found. The third and last section was built with donations from the local community in the mid-19th century.
Our tour guide explained something about the building and then our group was split in two. The people responsible for maintaining the church are really careful not to let too many people in at the same time and your time inside is limited to only 15 minutes. They will also push you out of the way if you’re about to (accidentally) touch the frescoes on the sides.
Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside but believe me when I say that the church is painted in a beautiful Byzantine style. Just how I like it!
What’s even more special about this church is the fact that not only the exterior is a mix-match of styles, the interior has had the same history as the outside. Whenever an area was added onto the original building, the frescoes inside the church were also altered. This resulted in different layers of frescoes. In some areas of the church you can see the original art because the top layer of frescoes has been broken off. In other areas the older paintings are completely hidden underneath newer frescoes. In some places you can see three different paintings at the same spot. According to UNESCO: “This site is one of the most complete and perfectly preserved monuments of east European medieval art”.
Rila Monastery
Rila Monastery is located south of Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River at an elevation of 1,147m above sea level. It’s a 1:30 hour drive from Sofia.
The Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It’s named after St. Ivan of Rila, a hermit monk who lived in the caves near where the monastery was built. His students built the monastery in the 10th century. It has been inscribed by UNESCO since 1983.
The first thing you’ll notice when you enter the premises is the way everything has been constructed with the mountains as a backdrop. Monasteries are the most special when they are far away from civilization. Meteora in Greece is an extreme example -probably one of the most beautiful locations – but even Rila Monastery has a gorgeous setting. After you enter, you’ll find the colourful church in the middle of the premises and the residences of the monks all around it. The residences, in my opinion, resemble houses in the Alps (I’ve never been in the Alps, so I could be completely wrong, but that’s the vibe I got).
Then you’ll see why the church is so colourful. It has been decorated with frescoes all around the building. This is the first time I’ve seen Byzantine art on the outside of a church.
During the guided tour, we visited the museum which, in my opinion, doesn’t really contain anything special. However, there is one item you should look out for, namely Rafail’s cross, which is a wooden cross that was whittled down by a monk to depict 104 miniature religious scenes. I’ve seen my grandfather whittle wood into figurines, but I’ve never seen something like this cross.
All-in-all Rila Monastery is best appreciated from the main square near the entrance.
While I was exploring the monastery, I saw a little cat. Since I’m a crazy animal lady I simply had to start caressing the cat. While I was talking sweet-nothings into the ear of my new friend, a stout Bulgarian lady came out of the residences and started talking to me in rapid Bulgarian. I told her I don’t understand, and she continued speaking and then she started waving (slightly aggressively) and saying “bye bye”, “bye bye”. I took this as my cue to leave. As I turned around I saw the guide walking towards me so I asked him what the lady was saying. He told me that she said that she would be happy for me to take the cat, because it was a stray and she was getting annoyed having to feed it.
That’s where misunderstandings come from! I thought she meant that I was in a restricted area and I had to leave, instead she meant – as a joke – that I should take the cat off her hands: “bye bye, bye bye”.
In case you’re wondering, I didn’t take the cat.
Conclusion
During my trip in the autumn of 2015, I visited many monasteries and churches in both Greece and Bulgaria. I don’t grow tired of them because I really like this style of buildings and art, but if you are the kind of person who doesn’t like to see many of the same things I would still advise you to at least visit Rila Monastery. Boyana Church is nice for Byzantine lovers such as myself, but Rila Monastery is something else entirely. You don’t have to love Byzantine art and Orthodox buildings to be impressed by the mountainous surroundings of the monastery.
