Patriarch Monastery

The Monastery of "St. Troitsa" (Holy Trinity), known as the Patriarch
Monastery is tucked away at the foot of the vertical rocks, in the
gorge of the Yantra River, around 10 km of the Old Bulgarian capital
Veliko Tarnovo.
According to the records, the monastery arose as far back as 1070. In
1368, the hermit Theodosii Tarnovski settled in that region and later
the feature patriarch Evtimii also settled there. Both Tsar Ivan
Alexander and Tsar (King) Ivan Shishman used to visit and help the
monastery, too.

In the end of the 14th century, during the Ottoman invasion,
the monastery was destroyed and the monks were killed. Patriarch
Evtimii was sentenced to death. According to legend, the death sentence
could not take place because, the header’s hand was frozen amid
atmosphere, upon trying to behead the patriarch and he was later
banished to exile.

Before the Liberation, the monastery was restored with the help
of Kolyu Ficheto. He constructed a big church and another famous master
- Zahari Zograf, painted the both the icons and the frescoes.

In 1913, this remarkable monument of culture and art was
totally destroyed by an earthquake. Among the survived features of the
church are the icons of St. Troitsa (The holy trinity), St. Archangel
Michael, Bogoroditsa (The Virgin Mary) etc.

The current building of the monastery and the residential
buildings were constructed in 1927. The monastery was exceptionally for
masculine gender till 1946. Later it became nunnery till today.

Source: visit.bg