The hook
Bulgaria's grandest monastery, set deep in forested mountains, its courtyard ringed by tiers of black-and-white striped arches and blazing with frescoes under a painted porch.
01Why it's worth it
Rila has been a spiritual centre for a thousand years, and through the centuries when Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule it helped keep Bulgarian language and faith alive, which is why it carries such national weight. Rebuilt in the 19th century after a fire, its main church and the surrounding four-storey residential wings form a striking enclosed courtyard: bold striped stonework, arcaded galleries, and an exterior porch covered in vivid, sometimes gruesome frescoes of heaven and hell. It sits high in the Rila mountains, so the setting of pine forest and peaks is half the experience, and pilgrims and day-trippers both come. You can stay overnight in the spartan monk's cells. Nearby, the Seven Rila Lakes, a chain of glacial tarns reached by chairlift and a hike, make a superb add-on in summer.
02How to experience it
Arrive early or sleep over in the monastery rooms to see the courtyard without the coach crowds. Study the exterior frescoes and the dark old church interior. In summer, combine it with the hike to the Seven Rila Lakes for the mountains that frame it.