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DAY - 1:
Arrival at Sofia Airport. Meeting, greeting and assistance by the tour guide.
Transfer to the hotel. Dinner and overnight in Sofia.
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DAY - 2:
After breakfast a sightseeing tour of the central part of Sofia - the Alexander
Nevski Cathedral, the Crypt with its precious icon collection, "St.Sofia" Church
, "St.George" Rotunda etc. Lunch. Visit to the National Museum
of History and the Boyana Church - a cultural monument under the protection
of UNESCO. The most remarkable feature of the church are its frescos from
1259, painted by an unknown Bulgarian artist in the style of the V. Turnovo
School of Painting and are the best achievement of Bulgarian mediaeval art.
Dinner at a folk-style restaurant with traditional cuisine and folklore.
While trying the delicious Bulgarian dishes and sampling the famous Bulgarian
wines you will be admiring the beautiful Bulgarian costumes of the dancers
who will perform traditional customs from various parts of the country. Overnight
in Sofia.
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DAY - 3:
After breakfast departure to the Rila Monastery, one of the Europe's largest
monasteries, a rare monument of the Bulgarian revival period, under the protection
of UNESCO. The Monastery fascinates its visitors with the pure and harmonious
line of the buildings' exquisite colonnades, arches and vaults and spacious
rooms richly decorated with murals and fretwork. The monastery's most treasured
historic and artistic monuments include the 14th century Hrelyo Tower, the
five-domed Birth of the Blessed Virgin Church and the original monastery
kitchen from the 19th century. The monastery also houses a rich museum collection
of valuable old manuscripts and documents, charters and icons, an ethnographic
exhibition of fabrics, jewelry, carpets and wrought iron objects, and a rich
library. Sightseeing of the Monastery. Lunch.
Continue to the town of Sandanski, situated in south-western Bulgaria, immediately
at the bottom of Pirin mountain. The district of Sandanski has the best climate
in Bulgaria and if you add the numerous hot miner springs you will find out why
the town has turned into a resort of international significance.
Dinner and overnight in the town of Sandanski.
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DAY - 4:
After breaksfast a visit to the Rojen Monastery, situated to the south in the
Pirin area, the only monastery restored during the first centuries of Ottoman
rule which has survived to this day. The present-day appearance of this old
monastery (built by the Melnik ruler, despot Slav, during the 12th or 13th
century) dates back to the 16th century. According to one inscription, the
image of Christ Pantocrator together with the twelve apostles above the entrance
gate of the Holy Virgin main church, was painted in 1597. Valuable monuments
of 17th century painting included the external southern wall (Doomsday, Jacob's
Ladder), dated with an inscription from 1611, as well as scenes from the
life of John the Baptist painted in 1622 in the ossuary. The inside walls
in the naos, the narthex and chapel of the main church were painted in 1732,
with a strong inclination for narration, as a result of which more than 150
subject-matters were illustrated. The abundance of figures of monks and hermits
unknown anywhere else, many of them, probably historic personages, contemporaries
of the unknown painter, is also typical. Rozhen Monastery owes its fame above
all to its carved iconostases and lecterns. Some of them are extremely complicated
compositions, both in intent and in actual execution, in which Biblical themes
have given full scope to boundless imagination which reached the peaks of
decorativeness. Rozhen Monastery has left us with a treasure in yet another
art - that of calligraphy. A unique work of the calligraphic school, which
existed here as early as in the 14th century, is the manuscript "Interpretation
of Jonah", taken in 1674 from the Constantinople Patriarch Dositheusm,
and kept today in the Holy Grave Church in Jerusalem.
Lunch. A visit to the town of Bansko - a lovely town, huddled at the foothills
of the most picturesque part of the majestic Pirin mountains with well preserved
old buildings, original architecture, numerous monuments of culture, churches,
museum-houses etc. Sightseeing of the town.
Continue to the town of Plovdiv - the second largest city in Bulgaria.
Dinner and overnight in the town of Plovdiv.
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DAY - 5:
After breakfast a sightseeing tour of Plovdiv and the fascinating "Old Plovdiv" -
an original living museum. A visit of the Roman amphi-theatre, the Ethnographical
museum housed in one of the picturesque old houses, the church of "St.St.
Konstantin & Elena", the Cathedral of St. Bogoroditsa,etc. Dinner and
overnight in the town of Plovdiv.
Lunch. A visit to Bachkovo Monastery, founded in 1083. The oldest preserved buildings
are: the Ossuary with frescoes from 12th and 14th century, and the church "St.
Archangels"(12-13th c.). The church of St. Nicholas (1834-37) was painted
by Zakhari Zograph in 1840. He also decorated the open atrium beneath the "St.
Archangels" church in 1841. The murals in the monastery dining-room ( built
in 1604, decorated in 1643) are believed to be a masterpiece of the European
Renaissance Art. Just like the Rila Monastery, Bachkovo Monastery is a cultural
monument of an international significance under the protection of UNESCO.
Dinner and overnight in the town of Plovdiv.
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DAY - 6:
Breakfast at the hotel. Continue to the town of Kazanlak, the main town in the
Valley of Roses, where the famous Rose Festival is held. The picturesque Valley
of Roses is tucked between the Balkan Range and Sredna Gora Mountains, where
hundreds of thousands of roses are in bloom - "a feast for the eye and
soul…" This magnificent city will make you acquainted with Bulgarian
customs and culture. Lunch.
A visit the village of Shipka and the Preobrajensky Monastery.
Dinner and overnight in the town of Veliko Turnovo. |
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DAY - 7:
Breakfast and departure for the Troyan Monastery, known for the creative work
of Zahari Zograph who painted both the exterior and the interior (a rare
practice for the time) of the main church built in 1835. It is a fine example
of the impact of the popular conception of the world and the influence
of housing architecture on religious construction. The Troyan Monastery
belongs completely to the Bulgarian National Revival period. The altar
of the main church made in 1839 is a masterpiece of woodcarving. Amazing
in its originality, is the much earlier (1794) carving of the holy altar
gates in the St. Nikola Chapel. Particularly valuable among the multitude
of manuscripts and incunabula are the so-called Troyan Homilies of the
17th century. Then a visit to an artistic craft exhibition in the Oreshak
village. Lunch at a local tavern in the museum town of Koprivshtitsa -
white stone walls, overgrown with ivy and wild geranium and gardens full
of flowers. Vaulted stone bridges run across the bubbly Topolnitsa river.
Heavy, iron-studded gates hide blue, yellow and red houses with verandas,
bay windows and eaves, while the spacious rooms are lit up by brightly
coloured rugs and cushions, with wood carved ceilings and cupboards, copper
vessels and ceramics. Experts say that every house in Koprivshtitsa is
a piece of art. The Oslekov, Kableshkov and Lyutov houses are fine examples
of that.
Then departure for Sofia. Dinner and overnight.
DAY - 8:
Breakfast. Departure for the airport for your flight home.
Please Note:
Upon request we can extend the Monastery Tour by visiting the Krustova
Gora Monastery Complex, located in the most picturesque part in the Rhodope
Mountains, near-by a village called Borovo. It's a sacred place worshiped
by many Pilgrims.
An old Legend says that part of the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified
was buried in the ground of the complex, and soon after curative waters
spouted up and made that sanctuary even more attractive for everyone.
DM TRAVEL Ltd.
WINE TOUR
THESE CHARMING LITTLE BULGARIAN TOWNS...
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WEEKEND TOURS AROUND SOFIA
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