| Bachkovo is located 28 km South-West
of Plovdiv city. Near the village is Bachkovo Monastery built in
1083 by Grigor Bakuriani, a military in the Byzantine Empire, a
Georgian by origin. The ossuary with its exquisite architecture
and wall-paintings dates from that time. The winter church of
the Archangels dates in all likelihood to the l2th century. In
the early l6th century Bachkovo monastery was destroyed by the
Turkish conquerors to be restored in the late l6th century. Of
great interest are the monastery refectory (1601 ), the church
of the Assumption (1604) with murals dating from 1643, and the
domed church of St Nicholas (1837), decorated in 1840 by the
Revival Period painter Zahari Zograph. |