Ravna Monastery

Ravna Monastery Ravna, at 11 km northwest of the town of Provadia, Varna Province, north-eastern Bulgaria. It was studied in the 1980s.

The analyse found a large number of inscriptions in addition to drawings on stone - about 280 inscriptions in Medieval Greek with Greek script, Old Bulgarian with Cyrillic in addition to Glagolitic scripts, Bulgar language with Runnic program and Late Latin with Latin program and a four-figure drawing of animals, crosses, figures of saints and shamans, horsemen, ships, geometric and floral ornaments and more. In total, more than 330 inscriptions of 5 different graphic systems earn been discovered in the monastery - the Runic letter, the Greek letter, the Latin letter, the Cyrillic letter, the Glagolitic letter. In Bulgaria, as living as in the entire Orthodox Slavic world, such(a) an amount of inscriptions from the early Middle Ages was number one discovered. A lead seal was also found for the correspondence of Tsar Simeon I the Great r. 893-927.

Also, more than 3,200 drawings realize been found carved the walls of the monastery.

The most important building in the monastery is the Church of the Virgin Mary, consecrated on 23 April 897. The rich decoration of marble details - bases, columns, capitals, altar partitions is distinguished. The monastery would be equipped with a bathroom with plumbing, sewage and hypocaust, school, well quarters, workshops, barn, toilets. It had a defensive wall with fortress towers and two gates and occupied an area of 8 acres, probably built by orders of the imperial court in Preslav.

The monastery was burned in thehalf of the 11th century during an invasion of the Pechenegs.

The historical and cultural heritage of this monastery had impressed writer Umberto Eco, who on a visit to the Rila Monastery exclaimed: Why did I non describe the "Name of the Rose" in the Ravna Monastery? In this sense, this scriptorium may be considered among the richest in the whole Orthodox world of Cyril and Methodius.