Pilgrimage Tourism

Bulgaria is a country with very strong Christian traditions. Almost every village has a Christian church. There were Christians in the Bulgarian lands even before the establishing of the Bulgarian state in the 7th century. However the majority of the citizens of the First Bulgarian Kingdom worshiped the pagan gods of the Slavs, Bulgars and Thracians. In the middle of the 9th century the Bulgarian throne was ascended by Prince Boris I, who realized the necessity of the adoption of Christianity and imposed it as the main and only religion in the country. There were several reasons for this, but the main reason were the differences between different religious communities in the country and the perception of Bulgaria as a barbaric country, which kept it in isolation and was the reason for the other medieval countries hostility towards it.
After the adoption of Orthodox Christianity in the country began a large-scale construction of temples, basilicas and monasteries. Over the next centuries Bulgaria became a country with strong Christian traditions, and during the five centuries of Ottoman dominion, the Christian religion and the monasteries were the forces that maintained the spirit of the Bulgarian people and their consciousness.
Nowadays there are nearly 100 monasteries in the country. Some of them are not operating, but others have been operating almost without interruption for more than 1,000 years. Visiting the Bulgarian monasteries is equal to time travelling – it allows you to acknowledge the country’s history, which was marked by very light and difficult times.