Etropole Monastery

Etropole Monastery of the Holy Trinity

Overview of the Etropole Monastery with the main church and the living quarters
Location within Bulgaria
Monastery information
Other names	Varovitets
Order	Bulgarian Orthodox
Denomination	Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Established	12th or 13th century
Dedicated to	Holy Trinity
Celebration date	Pentecost
Controlled churches	1 main church, 2 chapels
People
Important associated figures	Vasil Levski
Site
Location	Near Etropole, Sofia Province, Bulgaria
Coordinates	42°49′25.6″N 24°2′13.9″E / 42.823778°N 24.037194°E / 42.823778; 24.037194

The Etropole Monastery of the Holy Trinity (Bulgarian: Етрополски манастир „Света Троица”, Etropolski manastir „Sveta Troitsa”), also known as Varovitets (Варовитец), is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery near the town of Etropole in west-central Bulgaria. The monastery was founded in the 12th or 13th century, its heyday being from the 16th to the 18th century when, thanks to its prolific scriptoria, it was the dominant literary centre of Ottoman-ruled northern Bulgaria. In its present form, the monastery includes a large mid-19th-century church and two chapels.

History

The Etropole Monastery is located 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) from the eponymous town, which lies to the north-east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.^[1] The closest inhabited place is the village of Ribaritsa, which is 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) west of the monastery.^[2] The monastery lies among maple woodlands at the foot of the Balkan Mountains.^[3][4]

The monastery was founded during the Second Bulgarian Empire, either in the 12th^[5] or 13th century.^[1] According to a stone inscription reportedly placed into the foundations of the church, the exact year of its foundation is 1158, during the Byzantine rule of Bulgaria.^[2][3] The medieval part of the monastery's history is documented in its commemoration codex (pomenik), which also includes lists of medieval Bulgarian and Serbian monarchs.^[5]

The Etropole Monastery reached its apogee between the 16th and 18th centuries, when it emerged as the most important literary and cultural centre of the northern Bulgarian lands

In the late 19th century, during the last decades of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, the time of Bulgaria's struggle for independence, the monastery provided shelter to national hero Vasil Levski and other anti-Ottoman revolutionaries.^[9] Levski even had a hiding place specially built for himself at the monastery.^[10] At present the monastery is inhabited by a small number of nuns.^[2]

Architecture and culture

The monastery's present main church (

In addition to the main church, the Etropole Monastery also includes two smaller chapels and various residential buildings in the Bulgarian National Revival style, which are situated in a grass-covered yard.^[1][2][11] The chapels are each dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and Saints Cosmas and Damian.^[12] One of the rooms in the residential quarters functions as a small museum to Vasil Levski, focusing on his time hiding at the monastery.^[11]

Among the valuable items in possession of the monastery are two 15th-century

National Art Gallery's collection.^[3]

The monastery celebrates its holiday on

Holy Trinity. In the woods in the vicinity of the monastery are the Varovitets Waterfall, 15 metres (49 feet) high,^[4] and its source, an eponymously named karst spring.^[11][12]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Etropole Monastery.

1. ^
   ISBN 9781841621555
   .
2. ^
   ISBN 9781858288826
   .
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Димитров, Божидар (2011-09-02). "Тайните на Етрополския манастир" [The secrets of the Etropole Monastery]. Стандарт (in Bulgarian). Стандарт нюз АД. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Манастирът "Св. Троица" е книжовен център през XVI в." [The Holy Trinity Monastery was a literary centre in the 16th century]. Стандарт (in Bulgarian). Стандарт нюз АД. 2005-02-27. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
5. ^
   ISBN 9780549650751
   .
6. ^
   ISBN 9548104083
   .
7. ISBN 954528613X
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8. ^ Nikolova-Houston, p. 83
9. ^ Бакалов, "ЕТРОПОЛСКИ МАНАСТИР , "Варовитец" [ETROPOLE MONASTERY, "Varovitets"]"
10. ISBN 9781843830665
    .
11. ^ ^{a b c d} "Непристъпна крепост, светци и дяволи в планината" [An impenetrable fortress, saints and devils in the mountain]. Капитал Light (in Bulgarian). Икономедиа АД. 2009-11-19. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
12. ^ ^{a b} "The Etropolski Monastery "St. Trinity"". Official Tourism Portal of Bulgaria. Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism of Bulgaria. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.