Divotino Monastery of the Holy Trinity

Overview

The Divotino Monastery of the Holy Trinity is one of the oldest and best-preserved monastery in the Sofia region. At present, it functions as a monk brotherhood.

It is located in the Lyulin Mountain, near the village of Divotino, about 2 km from the Mihailovo district of the town of Bankya and 25 km from Sofia. The area is extremely picturesque, the monastery is surrounded by hills and a river.

Legend has it that the monastery was built by a man and his wife who found a pot of gold pieces while cultivating their land. The couple decided to invest the wealth in building a monastery and put the pot on the back of a donkey, saying they would build the monastery on the spot where the donkey fell and died. Where the donkey died of exhaustion, construction began in 1046, exactly 100 years after the death of St. Ivan Rilski.

After the conquest of Sofia by the Ottomans in 1382, the monastery was destroyed, and from then until today only small wooden parts of the iconostasis and three frescoes remain. The monastery was rebuilt in 1875. The locals called it the Royal Monastery because of the frequent visits of Tzar Ferdinand, who gave two carriages to the then abbess, mother Claudia. Like most monasteries, there was a school in Divotinski monastery. The monks supported the liberation struggles by sheltering Vasil Levski.