The candle, the beeswax, the hand-rolled by the monk at the Zlatni Pyasatsi (the Golden Sands) monastery shop (the €2, the thin, the scent of the honey and the smoke), the flame that flickers in the draft from the mouth of the cave on the second level of the Aladzha Monastery (the 12th–14th centuries, the 25 metres up the limestone cliff face in the Golden Sands Nature Park, the 17 km from the Varna on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria), the flame that illuminates the faint traces of the medieval frescoes on the cave wall (the Christ Pantocrator, the faded to the ochre and the grey by the 700 years of the damp, the salt air, and the Ottoman the neglect), and the sense of the Hesychast monks who lived here in the total the silence, is the essential the Aladzha the experience. The Aladzha Monastery is the most beautiful medieval cave monastery complex in the Bulgaria. Here is your guide.

Aladzha Monastery, Medieval Cave Monastery in Bulgaria

• The monastery, the essential visit: The Aladzha Monastery is a the rock-hewn the Orthodox the monastery carved into the vertical the limestone the cliff in the 12th–14th centuries (the Second the Bulgarian the Empire, the Tarnovo the capital, the flourishing of the Hesychast the monasticism: the silent, the contemplative, the prayer, the isolation). The monastery is the 2 levels: the lower level (the church, the monks’ the cells, the refectory, the crypt), the upper level (the chapel, the the most the inaccessible the part, the monks the climbed the wooden the ladders that have the long the since the rotted the away, and the archaeologists the have installed the metal the stairs). The essential the visit: the walk the through the monastery the cells (the 10 the chambers, the small, the 3 metres by the 2 metres, the stone the bed, the niche for the icon, the window the overlooking the forest. The most the moving the cell: the crypt, the monks the buried the dead the in the floor and the niche the tombs are the still the visible), the climb to the upper level (the metal the stairs, the 50 the steps, the view of the forest and the sea, the Black the Sea is the 3 km the away and the glints the through the trees on the clear the day), the Catacombs (the 500 metres the walk the through the forest, the separate the burial the complex: the 3 the levels of the tombs the carved into the cliff, the 5th–6th the centuries, and the essential: the the torch, the catacombs are the dark, the damp, and the genuine the Indiana the Jones the atmosphere. The the best the part of the Aladzha and the the least the visited). The entry is the 5 the leva (the €2.50), the site is the open the 9am–5pm the Tuesday–Sunday (the closed the Mondays), and the essential: the visit the morning, the light the illuminates the cave the interiors the best between the 10am and the 12pm. More Bulgaria →
• The Golden Sands and the Varna, the essential Black Sea combination: The Golden Sands (the Zlatni Pyasatsi, the essential Bulgarian Black Sea resort): the 1,500-bed the resort the 3 km from the Aladzha, the 4 km the beach, the golden the sand (the sand the grains are the tiny the magnetic the particles, the true the gold, and the sand the sticks to the skin), the water is the 25°C in the August, the €30 for the sun-lounger and the umbrella for the week, and the essential: the Golden the Sands is the party the resort, the quiet the alternative is the St the Konstantin the 10 km the south (the older, the more the Bulgarian, the €40/night for the hotel). The Varna (the essential Bulgarian city the day the trip): the 17 km from the Aladzha (the bus the 409 for the 50 the stotinki, the €0.25), the essential Varna: the Sea Garden (the most beautiful the park in the Bulgaria, the 850 the hectares, the walk the length: the 8 km along the sea, the dolphinarium, the aquarium, and the best free the day in the Varna), the Archaeological Museum (the Gold of the Varna the Necropolis, the oldest the worked the gold in the world: the 4,600 BCE, the 6,000-year-old, the exquisite, and the most important the museum the artefact in the Bulgaria. The 10 the leva the €5), the Cathedral of the Dormition (the 1886, the free, and the most beautiful the cathedral in the Varna), the essential Varna the lunch: the Staria the Chinar (the traditional, the €10 for the 3-course, and the best-value the Bulgarian the meal in the Varna. The essential: the shopska the salad, the tomato, the cucumber, the onion, the grated the sirene the cheese, the €3, and the Bulgarian the red the wine for the €2).