The famous Bachkovo Monastery is located in the vicinity of Plovdiv, on the picturesque green bank of the Chepelare River, surrounded by the Rhodope Mountains. Currently, the stavropegion monastery is the second largest Orthodox monastery of the Bulgarian Church and one of the most visited tourist attractions in modern Bulgaria. Despite its impressive size and rich ancient history, the monastery yielded the palm to the Rila Monastery, but it still has no equal shrines in terms of the number of unique church relics.

The history of Bachkovo began in the Early Middle Ages, when the Byzantine generals, brothers Gregory and Abas, decided to found a monastery. Being Georgians by origin, they wrote the claustral rule carefully. Only Iberian monks (this was the name of the monks of the ancient Kingdom of Georgia) could live within the monastery, and all religious services were held in the Georgian language. The monastery began to receive not only Iberian but also Bulgarian monks later, in the 14th century.

The most valuable contribution to the development of the Bachkovo Monastery was made by Tsar Ivan Alexander. The image of the Bulgarian tsar still adorns one of the wall frescoes. But the monastery's heyday was in the 15th century. At that time, the monastery got icons of the Bulgarian, Russian, and Greek Orthodox Churches. At the beginning of the 17th century, the construction of a new church in honor of the Holy Trinity began.

An ancient crypt was preserved from the first monastery buildings, and from the Middle Ages – the Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary and the Church of Archangel. Today, the latter is known as a center of pilgrimage for Orthodox believers thanks to the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary Eleusa. The Archangels' Church attracts tourists with original frescoes by the outstanding Bulgarian painter Zahari Zograf. Moreover, the Bachkovo Monastery houses a museum of sacred art with an impressive collection of ancient manuscripts and medieval icons.