Aladja Monastery

In the Middle Ages, rock monasteries were created in many places in Bulgaria. Basically, these are associated with hesychasm - ascetic trend in Orthodoxy. Today, many such rock shrines are scattered on the territory of the country - chapels, churches and large monasteries. One of the most famous such places is Aladzha – a monastery, which is located near Varna and is surrounded by the natural park “Golden Sands”. You can touch the antiquity and imagine how monks lived in such places, seeking to know God through special practices.

Aladzha Monastery was founded in the IV-V centuries, probably by exiles from Rome. But the main abode here existed since XIv. After the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule. In the late nineteenth century. The monastery became one of the first objects of serious study by the Shkorpil brothers, the founders of Bulgarian archaeology. Unfortunately, most of the frescoes that decorated the walls in those days have not survived. But today you can walk through a two-storey cave and imagine how hesykhast monks lived in the Middle Ages.