Sokolski Monastery, Gabrovo, Bulgaria

The Sokolski Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery founded in 1833 and named after its founder Yosif Sokolski. It is located 15 km southwest of Gabrovo on the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains in the Bulgarka Nature Park and is close to the Sokolovo cave.

Originally, a small wooden church was built in 1833 and the frescoes were finished a year later. Hristo Tsokev, a Gabrovo-born artist, donated the church icon, which represents the Virgin Mary and Christ and is considered to be miraculous. In 1862, Father Paul Zograf and his son Nikola from the village of Shipka decorated the church with frescoes.

The monastery has a big yard surrounded by residential and utility buildings. In the centre of the yard, in 1865 the master Kolyu Ficheto constructed a big stone fountain with eight taps. The whole monastery was built during the Bulgarian National Revival with the strong support of the people of Gabrovo and the local villages.

The monastery played an important role during the April Uprising. In this monastery, the leader Tsanko Dyustabanov formed a group of volunteers for the resistance. In a short period of time during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 the monastery was a hospital.

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User Reviews

Miroslav Dimov (15 months ago)
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siyami ali (16 months ago)
Wonderful place just need to find how to go in. Which is strange because its monastery should be always open....maybe I am wrong.

Arturr Nazwiskoo (2 years ago)
30 December 2023 in the morning (9.20) the gate was closed. The biggest attraction happened to be the playground.

Dimitar Dimitrov (2 years ago)
Interesting monastery. Great view above the church. Kids can play nearby and also near there is a restaurant.

Иван Иванов (2 years ago)
The monastery was founded in 1833 by Archimandrite Joseph, later known in the struggle for church autonomy as Uniate Archbishop Joseph Sokolski. He came here from the Troyan Monastery together with Hieromonk Agapiy in 1833. They built a small wooden church next to the entrance of the nearby cave, and the following year they demolished it in the same place, with funds and the help of the villagers from the nearby villages of Etara and Nova Mahala, who built today's large church.

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There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.

Sokolski Monastery

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