The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila
This visit to Rila came at the end of my visit to Bulgaria which was spent in the summer and winter resort of Bansko. A driver was arranged who would take us to the monastery, give us time to look around (but not enough) and then take us to our hotel in Sofia.
The Rila Monastery is in the mountains and from the outside resembles a fortress. It brings to mind a place that was built in dangerous times and actually at this time, being between the competing Serbian and Bulgarian kingdoms, with an unstable Byzantine Empire to the south, it probably was. The oldest structure is the tall defensive tower that takes the name of the strongman in charge at the time and who was responsible for the reconstruction of the the church and for the tower, The Tower of Hrelja. Like at Melnik, I failed to fully investigate the location before arriving and missed out on a number of sights and experiences, hence I missed seeing or entering the oldest, and to me most historically connected structures in the complex.
