Rila Monastery Tours & Tickets

Rila Monastery was founded in the 10th century by Saint John of Rila, a hermit monk whose relics are still preserved in the monastery's church.

The monastery's defensive walls and towers were built to protect it from Ottoman raids during the 500-year Ottoman occupation of Bulgaria.

Rila Monastery is Bulgaria's largest and most important Eastern Orthodox monastery, housing over 200,000 books and manuscripts in its library.

The monastery sits at 1,147 meters elevation in the Rila Mountains, Bulgaria's highest mountain range, surrounded by pristine alpine scenery.

The frescoes and iconography inside the monastery represent one of the finest examples of Bulgarian ecclesiastical art from the 19th-century Bulgarian National Revival period.