More than one million tourists visit Rila Monastery over past year

  Rila Monastery has attracted 1002 204 tourists between September 2008 and September

2009 year, a substantial year-on-year rise of 22.5 per cent, Georgi Kabzimalski, mayor of Rila

municipality, told radio Focus, quoted by Dnevnik daily.
 
The data has been gathered and published by Rila municipality, in charge of managing the natural park surrounding the monastery. In the report, some of the main reasons cited for the area's popularity are "the surrounding nature and the symbolic and religious heritage surrounding the monastery itself".
 
The report indicates that the summer is responsible for most tourism with July, August and September the peak months. Last year, most tourists came from Greece, France, the Czech Republic and Japan.
 
The Rila Monastery was declared a natural park in 2000 and the area near the monastery itself is protected and amalgamated within the Rila National Park.

The largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria, Rila is in the Rila Mountain, under the towering summit of Malyovitsa, 117km south of Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilskata Reka (river) at 1147m.
 
It is believed that the site was founded by the hermit St. John of Rila (Ivan Rilski), whose name it bears, during the reign of Tsar Peter I (927-968). The hermit actually lived in a cave without material possessions not far from the monastery, while the religious complex itself was erected by followers who came to the mountains to receive education.
 
Founded in the 10th century, Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments, a site which contributed greatly to the preservation of Bulgarian culture and heritage during Turkish occupation.
 
As a consequence, it is a key element in the Bulgarian national consciousness and an important tourist attraction in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe.
 
The main church of the monastery was erected in the middle of the 19th century. Its architect is Pavel Ioanov, who worked on it from 1834 to 1837. The church has five domes, three altars and two side chapels, while one of the most precious items inside is the gold-plated iconostasis, famous for its wood-carving, which was five years in the making.

     Source: sofiaecho.com