Aladzha Monastery is the most famous medieval cave monastery along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It was inhabited by hermit monks during the XIII- XIV centuries. It was in the end of XIX century when the founders of the Bulgarian archaeology – Shkorpil brothers, Karel and Hermin, began systematically to study this Christian monument. In 1927, Aladzha Monastery was declared a public historical monument and in 1968 it was declared an architectural cultural monument of national significance. The monastery caves are hewn on two levels into an almost 40m high limestone rock. The first level consists of a monastery church, monastic cells, a dining premise and a kitchen, a small cemetery church, a crypt (bone-vault) and farm premises. The second level is a natural cave recess in the eastern end of which there is a monastery chapel.
Photography: Nikolay Dimitrov