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Rila Monastery
The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery "Sveti Ivan Rilski" ( bg, Рилски манастир „Свети Иван Рилски“), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River ("Rila River") at an elevation of above sea level, inside of Rila Monastery Nature Park. The monastery is named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila (876 – 946 AD), and houses around 60 monks. Founded in the 10th century, the Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments and is a key tourist attraction for both Bulgaria and Southern Europe. In 2008 alone, it attracted 900,000 visitors. The monastery is depicted on the reverse of the 1 lev banknote, issued in 1999. History It is traditionally thought that the monastery was founded by the hermit St. Ivan ...
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Rilska River
The Rilska River ( bg, Рилска река, ''Rilska reka'', "Rila River") is a river in south-western Bulgaria, a left tributary of the Struma. The river is 51 km long and drains the western sections of the Rila mountain range. Geography Under the name Manastirska River, it takes its source from the north-eastern corner of the Upper Fish Lake in the western part of Central Rila at an altitude of 2,225 m in a cirque surrounded by the peaks Yosifitsa (2,697 m) in the east, Kanarata (2,666 m) in the south and Kyoravitsa (2,612 m) in the west. It flows through the Lower Fish Lake, turns in north-western direction and after forming a large convex to the north it turns to the south-west. Following the confluence with its largest tributary, the Iliyna River, it flows in western direction under the name Rilska River. It forms deep and densely forested valley until it reaches the town of Rila and enters the plain and wide Dupnitsa Valley. There, the Rilska ...
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Rila Monastery Nature Park
Rila Monastery Nature Park ( bg, Природен парк „Рилски манастир“) is one of the largest nature parks in Bulgaria, spanning a territory of in the western part of the Rila mountain range at an altitude between . It is in Rila Municipality, Kyustendil Province and includes forests, mountain meadows, alpine areas and 28 glacial lakes. With a little more than 1 million visitors, it is the second-most visited nature park in the country, after Vitosha Nature Park. It was established in 1992 as part of the newly founded Rila National Park. In 2000 some territory of the national park was reassigned to the Rila Monastery and was recategorized as a nature park because by law all lands in national parks are exclusively state-owned. Most of the park is owned by the monastery. The park includes one nature reserve, Rila Monastery Forest, with an area of , or 14% of its total territory. The park falls entirely within the Rodope montane mixed forests terrestr ...
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Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical") Eastern Orthodox Church is organised into autocephalous churches independent from each other. In the 21st century, the number of mainstream autocephalous churches is seventeen; there also exist autocephalous churches unrecognized by those mainstream ones. Autocephalous churches choose their own primate. Autocephalous churches can have jurisdiction (authority) over other churches, some of which have the status of " autonomous" which means they have more autonomy than simple eparchies. Many of these jurisdictions correspond to the territories of one or more modern states; the Patriarchate of Moscow, for example, corresponds to Russia and some of the other post-Soviet states. They can also include metropolises, bishoprics, parishes ...
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History Of Early Ottoman Bulgaria
The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly 500 years, from the conquest by the Ottoman Empire of the smaller kingdoms emerging from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 14th century, to the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Principality of Bulgaria, a self-governing Ottoman vassal state that was functionally independent, was created. In 1885 the Ottoman autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia came under the control of and was unified with the Principality of Bulgaria. Bulgaria declared independence in 1908. Administrative organization The Ottomans reorganised the Bulgarian territories, dividing them into several vilayets, each ruled by a Sanjakbey or Subasi accountable to the Beylerbey. Significant parts of the conquered land were parcelled out to the Sultan's followers, who held it as benefices or fiefs (small ''timars'', medium ''ziyamet'' and large ''hases'') directly from him, or from the Beyl ...
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Culture Of Bulgaria
A number of ancient civilizations, including the Thracians, ancient Greeks, Scythians, Celts, ancient Romans, Goths (Ostrogoths and Visigoths), Slavs (East and West Slavs), Varangians and the Bulgars have left their mark on the culture, history and heritage of Bulgaria. Due to this great variety of influences, Bulgaria has adopted many unusual traditions. Thracian artifacts include numerous temples, tombs, golden treasures and ancient rites and rituals, while the Bulgars have left traces of their heritage in statehood, early architecture, music and dances. Thracian rituals such as the Tryphon Zarezan which is dedicated to Saint Tryphon of Campsada, Kukeri and Martenitsa are to this day kept alive in the modern Bulgarian culture. The oldest treasure of worked gold in the world, dating back to the 5th millennium BC, comes from the site of the Varna Necropolis. Bulgaria functioned as a cultural hub of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable litera ...
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Bulgarian Language
Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians. Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family. The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages, including the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, and the lack of a verb infinitive. They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported. It is the official language of Bulgaria, and since 2007 has been among the official languages of th ...
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Veliko Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famously known as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists with its unique architecture. The old part of the town is situated on three hills, Tsarevets, Trapezitsa, and Sveta Gora, rising amidst the meanders of the Yantra. On Tsarevets are the palaces of the Bulgarian emperors and the Patriarchate, the Patriarchal Cathedral, and also a number of administrative and residential edifices surrounded by thick walls. Trapezitsa is known for its many churches and as the former main residence of the nobility. During the Middle Ages, the town was among the main European centres of culture and gave its name to the architecture of the Tarnovo Artistic School, painting ...
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Mara Branković
Mara Branković ( sr-Cyrl, Мара Бранковић) or Mara Despina Hatun (c. 1416 – 14 September 1487), also known as ''Sultana Marija'' or ''Amerissa'', was the daughter of Serbian monarch Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. As the daughter of Despot George, wife of Sultan Murad II, and stepmother of Mehmed II, she came to play a significant role in the diplomatic negotiations of the Ottoman Empire. Family Mara and her relations are named in "''Dell'Imperadori Constantinopolitani''", a manuscript held at the Vatican Library. The document is also known as the "Massarelli manuscript" because it was found in the papers of Angelo Massarelli (1510–1566). Masarelli is better known as the general secretary of the Council of Trent, who recorded the daily occurrences of the council. The Massarelli manuscript names her as one of two daughters of Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. The other sister is Catherine (Kantakuzina Katarina Branković or Katarina of C ...
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Dupnica
Dupnitsa, or Dupnica ( bg, Дупница (previously ), ), is a town in Western Bulgaria. It is at the foot of the highest mountains in the Balkan Peninsula – the Rila Mountains, and about south of the capital Sofia. Dupnitsa is the second largest town in Kyustendil Province. History The town has existed since ancient times. The German traveller Arnold von Harff visited Dupnitsa in 1499 and described it as a "beautiful town". The names ''Tobinitsa'', ''Doupla'' and ''Dubnitsa'' are mentioned throughout history, the last one used until the Liberation of Bulgaria, when the official name was changed to ''Dupnitsa''. In 1948 the town was renamed ''Stanke Dimitrov''; for a short period in 1949 it was called ''Marek''; the name was changed to ''Stanke Dimitrov'' in 1950. After the democratic changes, the old name ''Dupnitsa'' was restored. On 15 October 1902, around 600 women and children fled to the vicinity of Dupnitsa from Macedonia from the attacking Turkish troops. On a ...
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Mount Athos
Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the peninsula have been governed as the monastic community of Mount Athos, an autonomous region within the Hellenic Republic, ecclesiastically under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, while the remainder of the peninsula forms part of the Aristotelis municipality. Mount Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least AD 800 and the Byzantine era. Because of its long history of religious importance, the well-preserved agrarian architecture within the monasteries, and the preservation of the flora and fauna around the mountain, Mount Athos was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988. In modern Gr ...
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Rossikon
Saint Panteleimon Monastery (russian: Монастырь Святого Пантелеймона; el, Μονή Αγίου Παντελεήμονος, ''Moní Agíou Panteleímonos''), known as Rossikon (russian: Россикон, ''Rossikon''; el, Ρωσσικόν, ''Rossikón'') or New Russik (russian: Новый Руссик, ''Novyy Russik''), is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos, located on the southwestern side of the peninsula in Northern Greece. It is the Russian monastery on the peninsula. It houses exclusively Russian monks, sent by the Russian Orthodox Church, and the liturgies are served in Russian, despite the fact that all monks on Mount Athos eventually become citizens of Greece. History The monastery was founded by several monks from Kievan Rus in the 11th century, which is why it is known as "Rossikon". It has been inhabited by mainly Russian monks in certain periods of its history. It was recognized as a separate monastery in 1169. ...
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Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type = , main_classification = Eastern Orthodox , orientation = Russian Orthodoxy , scripture = Elizabeth Bible ( Church Slavonic) Synodal Bible (Russian) , theology = Eastern Orthodox theology , polity = Episcopal , governance = Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church , structure = Communion , leader_title = , leader_name = , leader_title1 = Primate , leader_name1 = Patriarch Kirill of Moscow , leader_title2 = , leader_name2 = , leader_title3 = Bishops , leader_name3 = 382 (2019) , fellowships_type = Clergy , fellowships = 40,514 full-time clerics, including 35,677 presbyters and 4,837 ...
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