16 April 2025 – Rila Monastery & Stob's Pyramids

Miles driven today = 73

Total Miles to date = 3,607

We both had our best night’s sleep in a long time last night with nothing but the owls to keep us awake and no bells going off at an ungodly hour as per our previous experiences of stopping over near monasteries and churches.  And of course the very best thing about sleeping in the car park of a major tourist attraction is you are normally guaranteed to have the place pretty much to yourself in the morning.  That was certainly the case for us this morning at Rila Monastery with only a small army of cleaners to keep us company when we walked through the gates before 9am.

Rila is the largest and most famous Monastery in all of Bulgaria and stands in the foothills of the Rila Mountains at an elevation of some 1,150 metres above Sea Level.

It was founded during the early 10^th Century by students of Saint Ivan/John of Rila, whose hermitage cave we visited yesterday and was named in his honour.  By the 14th Century Rila’s influence had spread far and wide and it brought in huge donations of funding from Bulgaria’s Tsars, among others.

It was allowed to continue operating under Ottoman rule, although it was plundered several times during that period.

A fire engulfed most of the monastic buildings in 1833 and the majority of what we see nowadays was built as a massive restoration programme following that.  The 14^th Century stone tower is the only building which survives from earlier times.

We had a good look around inside the main Church.  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside but every conceivable inch of wall and ceiling space was taken up in colourful frescos.  Lisa noted that all of the Saints seemed to have unfeasibly large feet.

There was also a vast brass chandelier hanging low above the central aisle as well as huge and impressive carved wooden iconostasis.

These pictures were actually taken in the cloisters area around the church itself where we could use cameras.  A lot of the scenes reminded the congregation of the terrible punishments which await them if they stray from the path of righteousness.

We also had a look around the museum.  Again, no photos.  There was loads of the usual iconography and religious artifacts but among the things that caught my eye were a carved wooden Church door from the 14^th Century, an 18^th Century Globe created by a monk and tought to be the oldest in Bulgaria, weapons used by the 40 or so security personnel who used to guard the monks, and the Monastery’s safe which required 5 monks holding different keys to be present at the same time in order to open it.

There was also Rafail’s Cross, named after the Monk who created it out of a single piece of box wood.  Despite being just 81cm high it contains depictions of 36 bible scenes featuring no less than 600 individual characters.  By the time he had completed it in 1802 Rafail had spent at least 12 years whittling away.  He then promptly went blind!

With hardly anybody about I just loved the serenity of the place.  There are some very mature trees growing inside the monastery which add to the feeling of calm and the sound of running water is constant both from rivers on two sides and from several constantly running stream-fed fountains.

But we knew it wouldn’t be long before the coach parties arrived so we made our exit.  Our final destination today was Sofia and we had thoughts on visiting the National History Museum which is housed in the old Communist Presidential Palace on the outskirts of the City.  But we finally had some lovely warm sunshine to enjoy, so outdoor pursuits won the vote and having made our way back down the valley to Rila we diverted a couple of miles South to the village of Stob.

We found our way to a large car park at the foot of a walking trail where we popped on our hiking boots, paid up a few lev and set out on the path.  The notice board at the beginning of the trail reckoned we would get to the far end in 35 minutes but you’d have to either be a mountain goat or a first class fell runner to achieve anywhere near that.

The first section was a relatively gentle uphill ramble with nice views over the village.  We spotted a few of these bracelets tied to bushes yesterday and it was the same here.  There was also a guy polishing up a large cross ready for Easter and we wondered how that fell in line with the Motorhead stickers adorning his car.

Then the path steepened up and became rather more challenging until we got to a shelter from where we could see the first group of “Pyramids”

The alien shapes are created by erosion of the sandstone hills.

In some places larger rocks are exposed.

And where the sandstone underneath them is washed away they form strange mushroom shapes.

Lisa decided to make use of the shelter while I carried on to the top of the climb and it’s probably as well she did.  Not only did the track become significantly steeper again but there were big unprotected drop offs right by the side of the path which would have played absolute havoc with her vertigo.

But the view up there was absolutely spectacular with the snowy Rila Mountains providing a back drop to the colourful sandstone shapes.

The end of the road with 200 foot drops on 3 sides.  Time to turn around and head back to Stob.  The uphill climbs we have done over the last couple of days have probably been the most challenging I’ve attempted for a good while and I’m quite pleased that my knees and my general fitness levels seem to be holding up pretty well.

We had lunch back at the van before pointing ourselves towards Sofia and an hour and a half later we were making our way through the outskirts of the City. 

We are spending the next couple of nights at a campervan rental business called Dimar Rent, who allow stopovers in their yard for €15 a night including hook up.  We are approximately 5km South West of the City centre but it’s surprisingly quiet as we are tucked away behind a gym and a petrol station.  When we got here I set about retrieving the wayward hose nozzle from the water tank feeder pipe while Lisa gave the van a good clear out.  With the exception of a couple of persistent squeaks and rattles everything in the van (touch wood) seems to be back to working as it should do and having had our first showers for three days we are feeling squeaky clean and ready to see what Bulgaria’s Capital City has to offer tomorrow.

17 April 2025 - Sofia