Hi for this weeks Travel Photo Thursday.
I've just been chatting to a new travel friend, Derek Earl Baron, about Bulgaria so I got inspired to go through photos of our East European saunter, a trip I haven't written enough about. Fascinating countries to visit and inexpensive, downright cheap actually, such good value for money.
We enjoyed our travels in Bulgaria, a country of many layers of history positioned by that narrow neck of land where Europe and Asia meet between the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Successive waves of migrations and conquests swept to and fro across the area - tribes from Central Asia came through; Greek, Roman, and Islamic Empires claimed dominance through the ages; all leaving their influences in culture and architecture.
The Rila Monastery is situated in South-western Bulgaria some 117km from Sofia the capital.
Originally built in the time of St Ivan of Rila around the mid 900's CE, it has been added to and destroyed many times and re-built between 1834- 1862 and most buildings date from that time.
The ceilings and walls are covered in beautifully painted frescoes depicting biblical scenes. Photography is not allowed in the interior of the main church.
Click on any photo for full size view.
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| View of Rila Monastery courtyard. |
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| View of courtyard looking right. |
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| A view further right of Rila Monastery, showing the frescoes. |
More great photos being posted up for Travel Photo Thursday over at Nancie's BudgetTraveler's Sandbox.
Check them out or join in.
23 comments:
Those photos are all I need to make sure that I pay a visit to Rila myself during my upcoming trip. I'm actually most excited for Bulgaria and Romania so this kind of information is perfect!
You'll thoroughly enjoy it Earl. We should have spent more time there. Both Romania and Bulgaria have such great history, and the folk culture performances are exciting. Try and get to some folk dancing shows. Yeah I know it's touristy stuff but we loved it.
I've never been to Bulgaria nor seen photos so these are great. You have the best life ever to travel like you do!!
Great photos, Jim! (^_^)
Thanks Shanda, travel has featured in our lives ever since we married and took off together way back in '74. But there's also room for us to be very giving. Travel has opened our eyes to the plight of most in this world so we support a few organisations alleviating poverty and conserving wildlife. You'll find a lot of my articles will reference either issues. It's the least we can do.
As to being able to travel probably due to prudence, saving, and making good decisions.
Hi Musa-chan, hope you stumbled this thanks!
This is one part of Bulgaria I haven't yet seen. Looks beautiful!
I don't think I've ever seen such a colorful monastery.
very pretty building
Amazing pictures Jim! Thanks for sharing. A place I would love to visit, but probably won't, so it's a great thing that I have blogs like yours that can take me to places I most likely won't have the chance to go :)
~peace
Jim, these are great photos! The monastery is so beautiful and unusual. I've always wanted to travel to Eastern Europe. Bulgaria's history and cultural influences are so interesting.
Beautiful! I would love to go to Bulgaria. I like the less visited, cheaper, places both for their affordability and rarity! :)
I too really liked all the colors! They do like stripes. Very beautiful shots.
Jim,
I love love the images : )
Jessica
Love the stripes! So stylish for a monastery.
You've seen so much of the world, Jim! It's great that you've blogged your travels. But I'm still hoping I'd get to do some of that traveling too. :)
Never been to Bulgaria, thank you for the reportage, the monastery looks fascinating :-).
Ciao
Alessandra
I really loved these images from Bulgaria. Okay, another locale to put on my travel list. Thanks! :-)
http://lyricfire.typepad.com/lyric-fire/2011/09/lyric-fire-look-at-my-fabulous-life-episode-6-.html
I love visiting your blog, seeing your amazing photography, and getting a taste of all these wonderful places you travel to.
What interesting architecture, Jim. You captured it beautifully. It's sort of reminiscent of La Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain.
What an amazing shot, Jim, of a beautiful monastery. Never expected it'd be so colorful.
Wow so many comments. I'm truly glad you all enjoyed these pics of Rila Monastery, taken on our pocket Sony DSC35 which does take a good, sharp pic, but is limited in having only 5x optical and max of 5 megapixels.
Bulgaria was a whirlwind trip, we just didn't spend enough time there. But can really recommend it as it has deep layers of history, castles, scenery, folklore and culture and great wine, and very affordable country.
Hi Michael, correct, Very similar and I was trying to think of the name of that building in Cordoba ( been there in 2001) to write a reference to it in the article to show the influences of Islamic art in the two countries. La Mezquita has similar painted patterns but the arches are definitely more Islamic than at Rila. But Rila was rebuilt in 18th century so prior to that the earlier style could have had similar Islamic arches. Anyone know?.
Great photography.Every historical place of world is heritage of humanity...and next generation always anxious about to know their past.
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