Lozen Monastery of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, Sofia City region

Overview

The Lozen Monastery "St. Apostles Peter and Paul" is located in the municipality of Sofia, Lozen village, at the entrance to Sofia on the Trakia highway. The distance from the monastery to the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Sofia is 18 km.

It is believed that the monastery was built either in the 9th-10th century or during the Second Bulgarian State.

Parts of ceramics and bricks dating from the 12th to the 14th century have been found in the area of ​​the monastery. They show that there was probably a settlement at this place, but do not provide reliable evidence for the existence of a monastery. Local legends tell of a large monastery that was destroyed during the conquest of Bulgaria by the Ottoman Turks. The conquerors killed all the monks and since then this area was called the "Cemetery". For many years, a stone cross there was a reminder of the ruined monastery.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a small chapel was built on this place, where Tsar Boris III used to come when he stayed in the nearby residence of Vrana( also known as Vranya).

In 1988-1989 a small church was built on the site. The construction of the monastery buildings began in 2001. The new church was consecrated in 2005 by Patriarch Maxim. Some of the icons in the church are a gift from the monks of the Athos Zografski Monastery and were painted by the Greek icon painters, the Papumelo brothers. In the renovated residential buildings, there is a small chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The church is not painted. It houses the relics of St. Charalampius, St. Theodore Tyrone, and St. Tryphon. The wood-carved iconostasis was made by masters from the Rhodopean village of Momchilovtsi.