Chiprovtsi

Chiprovtsi

Chiprovtsi is a small town with 480 m of altitude, situated on the banks of the Ogosta River, at the foot of the Western Balkan Mountains. Its population is about 2500 people and it is 33 km to the west of town of Montana. It was founded by the Thracians but its efflorescence it reached in the first three centuries of the Turkish yoke. In the XVI and XVII centuries Chiprovtsi was the biggest jeweler center in the whole Balkan Peninsula. In 1688 the Bulgarian catholics organized the Chiprovtsi uprising. It failed but changed the status of the whole Northwestern Bulgaria as a buffer zone between the Ottoman Empire and Habsburgs lands. In the XIX century carpet industry rapidly developed. Carpets of Chiprovtsi, made by hand, brought fame to the town throughout the whole world.
Today it is a quiet and pleasant town with magnificent nature.

Sights

5 km to the northeast is the Monastery of Chiprovtsi, burnt and rebuilt six times during the Turkish yoke.
At 20 km distant from the town is the Lopushka Monastery with unique icons painted by iconographers from Samokov.
In the vicinity of the town the beautiful Chiprovski waterfall can be seen.

Chiprovtsi St John monastery

The Chiprovtsi monastery, named St. John of Rila, has its origins in the 10th century AC and is one of the 30 monasteries that were built during the very first Bulgarian state that strengthened the position of Christianity and helped the deed of Cyril and Metodius who introduced the cyrillic alphabet in the country. For 9 centuries, the Chiprovtsi monastery had acted as a cultural and educational centre. It survived the Madyar invasion in the 13th century, the fall under Ottoman rule in the 14th century and the raids of Mihail Hrabri in the 15th century. It served as a main shelter and also as a focal point in the uprisings of Konstantin Fruzhin in the 15th century and of the Chiprovtsi inhabitants in the 17th century. The monastery was raided and robbed more than once, and was also partially destroyed and then reconstructed with the financial support of welathy Bulgarians six times in a row during the 19th century.
The tower-ossuary is of particular interest among the buildings in the monastery complex as it holds the bones of some of the victims of the Chiprovtsi uprising, including those of Panayot Hitov and Philip Totyu. The St. Anastasii the Great chapel, which is thoroughly decorated with frescoes, represents an interesting architectural and artistic object as well. A curious fact in the history of the monastery is that in 1800, the very Russian emperor sent a Gospel as a gift to the cloister.