Bulgaria: a monastery, glacier-shaped mountains and a Thracian tomb

Rila Monastery lies in the Rila Mountains where the Drushlyavitsa and Rilska rivers meet; the monastery names the hermit St John of Rila as its founder in the first half of the 10th century. Its own history says manuscripts have been kept there since the 11th century, among them a Glagolitic copy of a text by St Ephrem the Syrian, and that in 1466 it signed a treaty of mutual help and refuge with the Russian monastery of St Panteleimon. The stone Hrelyo Tower, built in the 1330s, has five floors and is 23.60 m high; a chapel on its top floor holds frescoes from the 14th century. UNESCO records that the complex was destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 19th century and rebuilt between 1834 and 1862. The monastery’s Church History Museum shows manuscripts and old printed books, with a miniature wood-carved cross made by the monk Raphael at the beginning of the 19th century at the centre of the display.[1][2][3][4]

The Pirin Mountains lie in south-western Bulgaria between the valleys of the Struma and the Mesta. The Pirin National Park Directorate explains that the last major uplift came during the Ice Age, and that glaciation left deep cirques, moraines, glacial valleys and lakes. It counts 35 cirques, large and small, and more than 50 marble and granite peaks above 2,500 m inside the park. Protection grew in stages: Vihren People’s Park, 6,736 ha, was declared on 8 November 1962; in 1974 the area became Pirin People’s Park at 26,413.8 ha, and in 1987 a further 12,639 ha were added; it became a national park in 1999. The directorate now speaks of more than 40,000 ha, while UNESCO’s World Heritage property overlaps the park except for two skiing areas. In its Vihren section, whose office is in Bansko, the directorate points to Baykusheva mura, a tree of the species Pinus heldreichii that it puts at more than 1,300 years old, about 8 m round the trunk and 22 m tall.[5][6][7][8]

The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, in Stara Zagora Province, was found by chance on 19 April 1944, according to Kazanlak Municipality, when soldiers were digging an air-raid shelter. It consists of a corridor, a rectangular antechamber and a round burial chamber. The domed chamber is 2.65 m across and 3.25 m high, and its walls carry murals in tempera and fresco; the main frieze shows a scene interpreted as a funeral feast. The burial goods were robbed in antiquity. The sources date the tomb differently: UNESCO to about the end of the 4th century BC, the municipality to the first half of the 3rd century BC. The original, in Tyulbeto park, is under a special preservation regime, and a 1:1 replica stands next to it. The Ministry of Tourism lists the tomb within the Valley of the Thracian Kings, which also includes mounds such as Golyama Kosmatka and Shushmanets.[9][10][11]