Tour in Bulgaria: Monasteries and old cities

Arrive at Sofia airport in the late afternoon, meet the guide who will stay with the group all throughout the tour and departure to Troyan.

Accommodation in a hotel. Dinner and overnight.

Breakfast and visit to Troyan Monastery dating back to the 16th century, famous especially for the works of the great Bulgarian painter Zahari Zograf, being also a very important political and cultural center of the Renaissance which hosted one of the revolutionaries committees of the national hero Vasil Levski.

Continue to the medieval capital of Bulgaria: Veliko Tarnovo.

Visit Mount Tzarevez and the artisan district. Visit the village: Arbanassi museum, a small village which was home to the middle-class families of Veliko Tarnovo. Here you'll visit the medieval Nativity Church, famous for the splendid interiors entirely frescoed and Kostanzaliev house-museum, a huge building that was built in the 18th century by a rich local merchant.

Hotel accommodation, full board. 

Breakfast and checkout. Visit Etara open air village-museum.

Continue to Shipka, visit the Church of the Nativity Commemoration situated in the green of Stara Planina. Built in the 19th century, it shows the style of Moscow churches of the 17th century.

Arrive in Kazanlak.

Visit the tomb of the Thracian prince Kazanlak, a monument protected by Unesco. Visit an exposition of machineries and tools for processing rose petals.

Hotel accommodation in Plovdiv. Full board with tastings and dinner with famous "rozalika", the rose brandy. 

Breakfast.

Visit Plovdiv. A lively and cosmopolitan city, it offers the opportunity to visit an entire district made of ancient buildings in the style defined as "Plovdiv Baroque". Following the cobbled streets developing around this hill you will admire the many houses which have been home to the most important families of the city for centuries, Today, one of these houses, built in 1847, hosts the magnificent Ethnographic Museum. Nearby is also the Church of St. Constantine and Helen built in 1832.

Excursion to visit Bachkovo Monastery. Built in 1083, this monastery is known mainly for the original architectural shape and for the treasures and book collection which it hosts. The most interesting feature of the monastic complex is given by the series of frescoes which cover the monastery entirely, along with the churches and the ossuary. It is considered the second most important monastrey in Bulgaria.

Full board. 

Breakfast.

Depart to Karanovo to visit one of the most recent and interesting archaeological findings of Bulgaria, a grave containing an entire gig with horses among other objects, part of  the extremely rich funeral kit of a Thracian aristocrat of the early centuries AC.

Continue on to Stara Zagora. Visit the rich Regional History Museum and the Forum of the Roman city Augusta Traiana, founded by emperor Trajan (98-117). It was one of the most important cities of Thrace, a Roman province organized as a Greek city. The countless graves spread in groups all over the region are an indication of the density of population in ancient settlements.

In parallel to the common Thracian villages in the era of Marcus Aurelius, here emporium - markets began to rise, taking the shape of trading towns. Visit the Neolithic Museum which preserves some of the most important findings in the world including houses and artifacts that testify to the "birth of Europe".

Return to Plovdiv.
 

Breakfast.

Departure to Koprivshitza. Visit the historic center of the town home to some of the most beautiful historic houses of Bulgaria. Still nowadays over 60 of these houses entirely built in wood between 1700 and 1800 are still standing. Visit the Church of the Virgin and two of the museum-houses.

Continue to Sofia.

Before returning to Sofia visit Kremikovzi monastery which was established during the 14th century, under the rule of czar Ivan Alexandar. In that period 14 new monastic complexes were built around Sofia. Destroyed in 1332, it was then rebuilt in 1493, the year in which also St.George Church was built. The interiors of St.George Church feature frescos of an extraordinary value, a sort of gallery with mastrepieces created by artists of the great Tarnovo art school: the color is solemn and harmonious, the trait is elegant, the figures are plastic and vital.

Hotel accommodation. Full board. 

Breakfast.

Visit Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria and one of the most beautiful Bulgarian capitals where you can admire Narodno Sabranie square, where the city center begins, which derives its name from the National Assembly bulding in Neo-Classical style from the 19th century. Aleksander Nevski cathedral, ordered to commemorate the liberation from the Turkish rule by the Russian armies, is the largest Orthodox temple of the Balkan peninsula and St. Sophia Church, one of the most distinguished Byzantine monuments of the Balkan region, is a rare example of the architecture of the transition between East and West.

Visit Rila Monastery, a cultural monument protected by Unesco, considered as the most important monastery in the Balkans. Founded in the 10th century by Ivan Rilski, for century this monastery has been an important cultural landmark of the country and one of the centers of the Orthodox Christianity. Inside the monastery church you can admire frescoes made between 1840 and 1848 by one of the most famous Bulgarian masters of the time of Zahari Zogrof and Dimitar Molerov.

Return to Sofia. Full board. 

Breakfast at the hotel.

Transfer to the outskirts of the capital to visit Boyana Church (Unesco). This church, set in a park with ancient trees, is an extraordinary and unique example of the medieval church architecture of the Balkan area. Built in the 10th century, it features some frescoes dating back to the 13th century which, for the techinque used, are an anticipation of the innovative style of the great Italian painting,  Visit the National History Museum, the most important in Bulgaria.

Transfer to the airport.