Several years ago, my girlfriend at the time and I decided to take a little weekend trip up to the northern, Romanian border of Bulgaria to the Vienna of the Balkans, as it has long been known. The City of Russe itself is beautiful, and I hear it has been even further repaired and improved since then.
In this post, however, I want to focus on one of our jaunts to the outskirts of the city. We hired a taxi (as public transport was very unreliable, and the taxi very cheap) to drive us around to the famous rock monasteries in the area, and even to a medieval fortified city.
I will cover the other places in future posts, but tonight I want to show you some pics from a place called the Besarbovo Monastery -- likely built sometime before the first known written reference to it in 15th-century Ottoman tax records.
It is the only working monastery in modern Bulgaria out of a handful of them scattered across the country.
An artistic view (never mind the fingerprint;)) ...
A peek at the surrounding area ...
A close-up ...
A study in traditions ...
Icons, graffiti, and fire extinguishers are ubiquitous features ...
'Twas but a wee ledge ...
Crude, but effective?
The depiction of God here reminds me a bit of Monty Python animations :D
Optical Illusions in Monasteries? Gotta love the Masonic imagery, lol ...
Alms for blessings ...
A rock carving ...
"Here lies the dust, in peace and quiet, and in eternal life, of ..."
