Description of the attraction
The Sokolsky Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin is located by the Yantra River. The town of Gabrovo is located 12 kilometers away. A marked trail leads here from the Etara reserve, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the monastery.
In 1833, Archimandrite Joseph Sokolsky, the future first abbot of the monastery, returned to Gabrovo together with Hieromonk Agapy. They chose a rocky terrace right at the entrance to Sokolova Cave to create a new monastery. The first building of the holy monastery was carved into the limestone rock. The first church was built of wood. A small wooden building was erected nearby for the servants to live. The church was consecrated in 1834 by Hilarion of Crete. The courtyard was built with donations from the residents of Gabrovo and neighboring villages.
The building of the church in the form in which it has survived to this day was erected in 1834. The decoration, internal and external, was performed by the priest Pavel and his son Nikolai. Their work continued for several decades and ended in 1862. The masters of the Tryavna school of painting painted the iconostasis. Several valuable icons are kept in the church, one of them is the work of Hristo Tsokev - the famous image of the Mother of God with the Child, which is considered miraculous. In 1968, a chapel was opened in the monastery, which houses the icons of the famous artist Zachary Zograf. In the courtyard of the monastery there is a cheshma - a fountain with drinking water - by the famous architect Kolu Ficheto. The scoop from this fountain was created in the Middle Ages.
The Sokolsky Monastery was a major educational and spiritual center. Here, in a religious school, which opened in 1836, Neofit Bozveli, a famous writer, worked. The role of the monastery in the national liberation movement is also great: in 1865, a detachment of captain Dyado Nikola was stationed in the monastery, it was from here that the Gabrovo uprising under the leadership of Tsanko Dyustabanov began in 1876. During the war between the Ottoman and Russian empires for the liberation of Bulgaria, a hospital was set up within the walls of the holy monastery. A collection of exhibits telling about this time is kept in the monastery museum.
The Sokolsky monastery in 1959 turned from a male to a female, as a female monastery was blown up in Gabrovo. Recently, the holy monastery was completely restored, the money for the restoration of the monastery received from the European Council.
