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Basarbovo Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox cave monastery near the city of Ruse in north-eastern Bulgaria. It has the same name as the nearby village of Basarbovo and lies about 35 metres above the river Rusenski Lom, south of the Danube.
Although founded during the Second Bulgarian Empire, the oldest written mention of the monastery dates to the 15th century in an Ottoman tax register. The monastery became famous in the 17th century after the death of St. Dimitar Basarbovski, whom St Paisiy Hilendarski talks about in the book Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya. St. Dimitar Basarbovski was a shepherd and led an ascetic life in the rocks of the monastery. He died in 1685. He was buried in the village church, but during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, General Pyotr Saltykov agreed to transfer his relics to Russia. The road passed through Romania. At that time, that region was suffering through a plague epidemic. The legend tells that when the saint's relics entered Bucharest, people stopped dying from the plague. The residents of the town asked the General to leave the saint's body there. Today his relics are located in Bucharest in the St. St. Constantine and Elena Church. In 1937, Father Hrisant settled in Basarbovo Monastery and revived it.
It is the only active cave monastery in the modern history of Bulgaria.
References:The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.
The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.
Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.