Description of the attraction
The Dragalevsky Monastery is an active female Orthodox monastery located three kilometers from the capital of Bulgaria, the city of Sofia, at the foot of Vitosha Mountain. The main holiday of the monastery is the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin.
The monastery was founded by the Tsar of Bulgaria John-Alexander in 1345. During the Ottoman rule, it was not destroyed, but for some time it was empty. In the XV-XVII centuries, as part of the so-called. "Sophia Holy Mountain", was the cultural and educational center of the country. In the 19th century, the Dragalevsky Monastery took part in the national liberation struggle against the Ottoman invaders. Father Gennady, who at that time was the abbot of the monastery, was a comrade-in-arms and associate of the famous Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski.
In 1476, not far from the main building, a cathedral monastery church (katholikon) was built - the Church of Our Lady of Vitoshka. The building is a two-aisled basilica decorated with numerous frescoes. At the end of the 18th century, a gilded carved wooden iconostasis was installed here, which is of great artistic value. In 1932, another church was added to the temple.
In the first half of the 20th century, several cell buildings were built here, designed for a large number of nuns, but today only two novices, three nuns and an abbess live here.
