Chiprovtsi Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery 5 kilometres northeast of the town of Chiprovtsi

Chiprovtsi

Chiprovtsi is a small town and municipality in northwestern Bulgaria, administratively part of Montana Province. It lies on the shores of the river Ogosta in the western Balkan Mountains, very close to the Bulgarian-Serbian border...

 in Montana Province

Montana Province

Montana Province is a province in northwestern Bulgaria, bordering Serbia in the southwest and Romania in the north. It spreads its area between the Danube river and Balkan mountain. As of February 2011, the province has a population of 148,098 inhabitants, on territory of 3,635.5 km²...

 in northwestern Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

. It belongs to the diocese of Vidin

Vidin

Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...

 and lies in the valley of the Ogosta

Ogosta

The Ogosta , is a river in Northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. It takes it source from Vrazha Glava Peak on the border with Serbia. The towns of Chiprovtsi, Montana and Miziya are situated on the river's banks....

 river.

According to Petar Bogdan, the monastery was built in the 10th century and remained a religious and cultural centre despite Tatar

Tatars

Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...

 and Magyar raids in the 13th century, the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 invasion in the 14th century and Michael the Brave's raids in the 16th century. The monastery has been razed six times, in 1412, 1688, 1806, 1828, 1837 and 1876, with the one of 1688 after the Chiprovtsi Uprising

Chiprovtsi Uprising

The Chiprovtsi Uprising was an uprising against Ottoman rule organized in northwestern Bulgaria by Roman Catholic Bulgarians, but also involving many Eastern Orthodox Christians...

 being particularly devastating. The current monastery church was built in 1829.

The Chiprovtsi Monastery consists of a church dedicated to Saint John of Rila

John of Rila

Saint John of Rila was the first Bulgarian hermit. He was revered as a saint while he was still alive. The legend surrounding him tells of wild animals that freely came up to him and birds that landed in his hands. His followers founded many churches in his honor, including the famous Rila...

, residential buildings, a small graveyard and a three-storey tower featuring an ossuary, a chapel and a belfry.