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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 church of the former Franciscan monastery was built probably between 1515 and 1520. It is located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old Rauma. The church stands by the small stream of Raumanjoki (Rauma river).
The exact age of the Church of the Holy Cross is unknown, but it was built to serve as the monastery church of the Rauma Franciscan Friary. The monastery had been established in the early 15th century and a wooden church was built on this location around the year 1420.
The Church of the Holy Cross served the monastery until 1538, when it was abandoned for a hundred years as the Franciscan friary was disbanded in the Swedish Reformation. The church was re-established as a Lutheran church in 1640, when the nearby Church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed by fire.
The choir of the two-aisle grey granite church features medieval murals and frescoes. The white steeple of the church was built in 1816 and has served as a landmark for seafarers.