The Peshtera Monastery of Saint Nicholas

Overview

The Peshtera Monastery of St. Nicholas, also known as Oryahovski or Mrachki, is an Orthodox monastery where monks no longer live. The monastery is located in the Orehovets area in the Mrakata region, four kilometers east of the village of Peshtera, Zemen region.

The first information about the monastery is from a document issued by the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander on December 1, 1348, with which he donated the monastery.

Some researchers believe that the eastern part of today's church is an old triconch church from the time of Ivan Alexander. Others suggest that the architectural features do not allow dating to the 14th century and that the triconch church is from the Athos architectural tradition and is similar to Greek churches of the 16th-17th centuries, as well as the church of the neighboring Poganovo monastery, dating to 1500. No archeological excavations have been carried out around the monastery.

During the construction of the new nave, a statue of the Roman god Mithras was discovered, which probably means that there was a pre-Christian pagan sanctuary in the Mrakata area.

Тhe Ottoman invasion left the monastery deserted. It was renovated in 1842, as the church was painted by the prominent master of the Bansko Art School Dimitar Molerov, and among the founders are the monk Simeon and his son. During the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) the Ottoman troops set the monastery on fire, hanged Simeon, and his son managed to escape to the Rila Monastery.

After the Liberation in 1897, a nave was added to the old triconch church, and it was turned into an altar. The new entrance of the church from the west was shaped like a portico with three arches and a gable-shaped pediment with a round window in the middle.

Until the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century, the monastery sheltered a stone icon of St. Nicholas from 1853 by master Stoimen from the village of Lobosh. Then the icon was moved to the Regional History Museum in Pernik.