Rila Monastery Museum - Rila, Bulgaria
Posted by: Metro2
N 42° 07.998 E 023° 20.430
34T E 693435 N 4667227
This museum is part of a monastery that was established in the year 927...and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Waymark Code: WMPX05
Location: Bulgaria
Date Posted: 11/01/2015
Views: 5
The Monastery's website (
visit link) informs us about the Museum:
"The Rila Monastery museum collections trace its history over the countries and reveal its role in Bulgaria’s cultural history. In the course of the centuries the Rila Monastery maintained lively relations with the countries of the Eastern Orthodox world; the metochia that were scattered in all Balkan Peninsula lands with Bulgarian population did educational work; the monastery repository holds records, books, church plate, icons and gifts from pilgrims.
The Rila Monastery History Museum possesses a rich collection of extremely valuable exhibits both in the exposition halls and in the monastery vaults. The exhibits are thematically grouped and trace the evolution of the monastery and its cultural, religious and nation-consolidation role.
The exposition includes the early historical and ecclesiastical collection of the monastery, some books of the monastery library and many copies of wall paintings that have been destroyed, icons, prints, vestments and church plate.
In 1980 the International Federation of Travel Writers and Journalists (FIJEST) distinguished the Monastery with Golden Apple, the highest award for familiarization and cultural tourism. Ion 1983 the Rila Monastery was recorded on the List of World Cultural Heritage as a world cultural value. Again at that time it got the status of a national museum, so the government started subsiding the museum collections, conservation and restoration of the wall paintings and the architectural heritage. A decree of the Council of Ministries of the Republic of Bulgaria reinstated the monastic status of the Rila Monastery in 1991, so today it is again the largest religious centre in the Bulgarian lands."
Read more about the Monastery at (
visit link)