UNESCO sites in Bulgaria
- Rila Monastery – the biggest and best-known monastery, founded in the 10th century by St. John of Rila.
- Boyana Church – frescoes from 1259 that got ahead of the Italian Renaissance.
- Madara Rider – a rock relief from the 8th century, the only one of its kind in Europe.
- Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak – with exquisite frescoes from the 4th–3rd century BC.
- Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo – medieval frescoes carved into the rocks above the Rusenski Lom.
- Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari – with caryatids that have been holding up the ceiling for thousands of years.
- Ancient City of Nesebar
- Pirin National Park
- Srebarna Nature Reserve
- Ancient Beech Forests – including in the Central Balkan.
Other monasteries worth visiting
- Bachkovo – founded in 1083 near Asenovgrad, the second largest in Bulgaria.
- Troyan – with paintings by Zahari Zograf and the famous Troyan ceramics nearby.
- Rozhen – near Melnik, among sand pyramids and vineyards.
- Glozhene – on a rock, as if hanging in the air.
- Dryanovo and Preobrazhenski – near Veliko Tarnovo.
Between us
In monasteries you enter with covered shoulders and knees. If you have forgotten, they will give you a skirt or a shawl at the entrance. Men in somebody else’s granny’s skirt look cheerful, but rules are rules.