Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery is the stateliest historical monument of the Bulgarian's spirit.
It's intricate and expressive architectural ensemble has been a treasure-house of priceless aesthetical relics and at the same time a living center of the nascency and evolution of the most progressive cultural-and-historical processes through the centuries. Viewed against th background of the rich architectural structure and of Bulgaria's church construction, it is not a solitary summit, but beyond all questions the highest one among the peaks of the country's national architecture.
A permanent object of patriotic pride and of the nation's sense of responsibility, it has been a standart of construction, of iconography and wood-carving, and has, with every upsurge in the national self-confidence, been enriched with more and more material and spiritual values.
Having been restored and reconstructed with the nation's generous benefactions, it bears the traces of a number of construction periods, healing the cankers that had been achieved by the nature's destructive elements and by human intervention. The survival of Rila Monastery has always been a point of national honour, and had been achieved by the ancestors with the alternative, just as of national honour, and had been achieved by the ancestors with no alternative, just as there is no alternative to its preservation today. The unique synthesis of the magnificent natural surroundings and the monastery's architectural appearance has made of it an attractive place for visiting pilgrims from all over the world, but they have only a fair chance to come into contact with the real wealth of aesthetical values which are not the object of traditional tourist attraction.
The major conception of this edition is based on the complex presentation of Rila Monasteryfrom both a modern and panoramic historical point of view as:
a unique natural-and-architectural sight, a valuable reserve of Bulgaria's plastic-and-pictorial culture, an emotional accent in the country's history of the Revival Period, and a centuries-old center of rich educational, religious and spiritual activities. With a view to achieving such an all-embracing presentation of the monastery complex, combined in the edition are authentic archival materials of historic importance, modern visual interpretations of the situations and life in the monastery, and also outstanding artistic works which had been created as a deep reaction to the impact of the national sanctuary upon the Bulgarian nation's mentality. the edition's effect is the result of the high-quality vision, accompanied by a rich in content text, synthesizing historical, aesthetical, religious and emotional aspects of a wide panorama of the unique monument, and also a selective cross-section of the deep layers of the cultural-and-historical values, amassed in its treasure-houses.