Vrachesh Monastery "St. 40 Martyrs"

The Monastery "St. 40 Martyrs" ("Sveti 40 Machenitsi") near village of Vrachesh (Botevgrad municipality) is located amidst gorgeous scenery of the Balkan Mountain, 5km west from the center of the village. The monastery was founded during the Second Bulgarian kingdom in XIII century, after the victory of Tsar Ivan Assen II over the Despot of Epirus Theodore Komnenos near Klokotnitsa on 9/03/1230. The date coincided to the religious holiday Forty Holy Martyrs. In honor of the victory and of the saints Tsar Ivan Assen II built several churches and monasteries, including Vracheshki monastery.

During its existence the monastery was burned twice by the Turks - in XV and XVIII century. The second time it had been completely destroyed and stopped to exists. In the XIX century (1891) the Monastery was rebuilt again. There is a legend about its restoration, acording which the Virgin Mary appeared in the dream of a shepherd showed him the places of the burned temple and the healing spring near it, and ordered Monastery to be restored.

The local people began to dig in and had found the remains of the monastery church, the bones of monks, church objects and a fully preserved icon of the Virgin Mary, which supposedly dates from the XVII-th century. On same place initially was built a small church and later the monastery was completely rebuilt. There is kept a piece of one of the relics of martyrs.

Today, "St. 40 Martyrs" near Vrachesh acted as a nunnery and is extremely well maintained. It was declared a cultural monument.