Location: Andaka River Valley, Gabrovo Province Map
Constructed: 17th century
Monastery Hotel
Tel. 067/6238
Price: starting 10 lev ($8.10/£5)
Open: 9am- 6pm
Dryanovo Monastery is functional Orthodox monastery located in northern Bulgaria, 5 km southwest of the town of Dryanovo and 15 km from the town of Gabrovo. An asphalt road leads to it. It is served by the Bacho Kiro railway station, which until October 20, 1949 was called St. Archangel, on the railway line Ruse-Momchilgrad.
Dryanovo monastery gorge has an ancient history. The first
people settled it in the early prehistoric epochs. They inhabit
the caves of the Boruna massif and the cavities in the rock
crown Polichkite. The oldest is the settlement of the primitive
man in the Bacho Kiro cave, which dates from the middle and late
period of the Stone Age (100,000 - 10,000 BC). Archaeologists
have studied a 5-meter cultural layer and discovered more than
6,000 finds. The cave is landscaped and suitable for visits by
tourists.
Settlement and cultural traditions continue to
develop in the Copper-Stone and Bronze Ages, when people built
their homes in the stone openings and cavities of the Shelves.
From the beginning of the Old Iron Age until Antiquity, the
locals were Thracians who remained on the outskirts of the
famous Thracian state unions and had a much poorer culture than
their compatriots.
In the early Byzantine era, the
strategic importance of the Fore-Balkans grew, the economic and
cultural rise accelerated. At the canyons of the rivers, the
Romans built fortresses in the areas of Boruna and Grada,
because they appreciated the good opportunity to control the
passes and roads in the Central Stara Planina. The Byzantines
abandoned the fortresses in the 5th century, when the
Fore-Balkans entered the territory of the Slavic tribes. They
began to be used in the tenth century and entered the
possessions of the most popular feudal lords in Northern
Bulgaria - the future rulers Assenevtsi.
The Boruna and
Gradat fortresses are key units and the last barrier for the
defense of the Bulgarian capital Tarnovgrad.
The medieval
monastery "St. Archangel Michael” was founded during the reign
of Tsar Kaloyan, after the relics of St. Michael the Warrior
were transferred from Potuka (an unknown settlement in Thrace)
to Tarnovgrad around 1206. The procession spent the night near
the Dryanovska River below the town and according to Christian
canons monastery. Over the centuries, the Dryanovo Monastery has
been a center of Bulgarian education and culture.
Today
it was restored in 1845. Like other monasteries, it was the
guardian of the Bulgarian spirit during the five centuries of
Ottoman rule. Vasil Ivanov Kunchev - Levski, Father Matei
Preobrazhenski - Mitkaloto and other revolutionaries found
refuge in it. A revolutionary committee was set up in the
monastery.
The monastery played a major role in the
preparation of the April Uprising in the First Tarnovo District,
where stocks of food and weapons were accumulated. On April 29,
1876, the detachment of priest Hariton entered the Dryanovo
monastery - the first rebel detachment in Tarnovo district and
Bulgaria. Surrounded by the Turks, they fought a 9-day battle
and most died for the freedom of Bulgaria. The destroyed and
burned monastery was partially restored and on April 3, 1877 its
main church was solemnly consecrated. Abbot Pahomiy Stoyanov
celebrated the first memorial service for the perished rebels.
The temple is without frescoes, with a chalice pierced by a
Turkish bullet and holes from the Turkish shrapnel in the walls,
deliberately left by the builders, so as not to forget the past
and the Bulgarian suffering. Grateful descendants erected a
monument to the ossuary in 1897 of the fallen rebels. The
ossuary was designed by the Italian Giovanni Mosuti. The project
was completed in 1890 and the statue was made in Rome by Luca
Arditi. In 1946, the Gabrovo industrialist, public figure, donor
and German vice-consul Kolyo Karagiozov made a donation of BGN
50,000 to the treasury of the monastery for the construction of
a new iconostasis in the church.
The modern monastery is
among the 10 most revered shrines of the Bulgarian Orthodox
Church, a national historical monument and a favorite tourist
site.
Bacho Kiro is a cave in the Fore-Balkans on the territory of Dryanovo municipality. The cave is located 300 m west of the Dryanovo Monastery, a short distance from the water cave Andaka, in a vertical limestone rock at 335 m above sea level. The natural landmark Bacho Kiro has been declared for its protection. In 1940 the cave was named in honor of the hero of the April Uprising - Bacho Kiro.
The best studied by
archaeologists is the first hall of the cave - "Lobby". Tools and
traces of intensive human habitation have been found in it, dating
from the Middle (70,000 - 50,000 BC) and Late (45,000 to 20,000 BC)
Paleolithic. Findings published in 2020 provide the earliest
evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens in Europe, when it was
still inhabited by Neanderthals.
It has a variety of
secondary karst formations - stalagmites, stalactites, stalactons,
draperies.
The temperature inside the cave is constant - 13 °
C, humidity is 95%. The cave is formed by the waters of the river
Andaka. Traces of human culture and bones of domestic and wild
animals have been found. A 3 m high bear skeleton was also found.
Interesting are the karst formations in the cave, resembling
fish, snakes, people, the Virgin and Child, a bear and many others.
One of the tourist attractions is the "Purgatory" - a low, difficult
corridor measuring 60 x 40 cm, which is said to be crossed only by a
righteous person.
Bats in the cave
Through direct
observations and catches with nets in the cave were registered 4
species of bats:
Great horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus
ferrumequinum)
Small horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)
Southern horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus euryale)
Myotis nattereri
Bacho Kiro Cave is a winter bat shelter, and from December to the
end of March an average of up to 100 large and small horseshoe bats
have been found.
Bacho Kiro Cave is among the
Hundred National Tourist Sites of the Bulgarian Tourist Union under
number 22.
It is the first landscaped cave in Bulgaria - by
Dryanovo tourists in 1937, and is one of the main tourist
attractions in the region.
In 1962 it was declared a natural
landmark.
You can hire a guide to explore the Bacho Kiro cave or if you want to go further you will have to arrange this with the staff. Several bucks or as Bulgarians call it “buksheesh” (tip) usually changes the mood of the security and they will look more positively on unsupervised exploration of the cave.