Description of the attraction
The Krichim Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin is an active male Orthodox monastery located in a gorge, at the bottom of which the Nishava River flows, near Krichima.
Accurate information about the founding of the holy monastery has not been preserved, but it is known that the monastic practice spread in these places for a long time. Back in the Middle Ages, hermit monks settled in the rocky caves near the monastery. The current monastery was founded around the 18th-19th centuries. At the same time, high in the rock, the novices cut through the premises intended for the main monastery church.
According to legend, the monastery was attacked several times. During one of them, all the monks were killed, the monastery was plundered and destroyed. The monastery is known for the fact that it was repeatedly visited by the famous Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski and his colleague Matvey Preobrazhensky. In this area, battles were fought during the Serbian-Bulgarian War.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the monastery fell into disrepair and only in 1947 the monks settled in it again. They found almost completely destroyed outbuildings and ancient frescoes in the rock church. Gradually, the monks and local residents jointly restored all the buildings.
The monastery complex includes several buildings: the refectory, which was built in 1861; The Church of the Introduction of the Virgin, carved into the rock, is a one-nave temple with a semi-cylindrical apse. On the western façade, you can see the surviving fragments of old murals dating from the 16th-17th centuries. Among them - the image of the plot from the Holy Scriptures "The Last Judgment", written by a talented artist. The rest of the icons appeared in the second half of the 19th century. The iconostasis for the temple, made in the same years, is kept in the monastery along with the new one, made in 1950.
