The Rock Monasteries of Ivanovo
The Rock Monasteries of Ivanovo are located on a fantastic landscape - rock massifs, flanking the picturesque valley of the river Roussenski Lom, 23 kilometres south-west of the city of Rousse. As if striving to be closer to God, hermit monks settled here during the 11th-14th centuries, digging cells, churches and chapels into the rocks. Talented artists painted them with realistic frescoes, refined in colour and composition - a real trove of Bulgarian mediaeval painting.