Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo

"I liked it better before I saw the cave churches in Cappadocia," I said to my friend, who didn't really ask for my opinion of the Churches of Ivanovo.

Not the most nuanced assessment, I know, but it does reflect the fact that while the church (singular) is interesting, but it can compare less favourably to other old religious sites that are carved into cliffs/mountains/remote areas. To give an illustration, I initially gave Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo a rating of 3.5 stars. After visiting the churches in Cappadocia, however, I revised the rating to 3 stars, even though I know that the ratings do not have to be in relation to other sites.

The frescoes of Ivanovo church are very vivid and, frankly, impressive. However, the totality of the experience does not elevate this UNESCO World Heritage Site to a "must see" (I am clearly speaking from a tourist's perspective and not from someone less ignoble). You can only visit one church, the church is small, there isn't much of a hike to build up excitement to the church (you can see it from the parking lot), and the nature surrounding the church is ordinary.

As for how I went to the rock-hewn church, it was a simple process but tad inconvenient. The village of Ivanovo is a short train ride from Ruse. I did not see any taxis at the village, but to be fair, I did not look very hard for one either. I instead …

I visited this WHS in 2023 as a side trip from Ruse. The Roussensky Lom River is the last deep tributary of the Danube river on its right side. It creates a fan-shaped network in the Danube Plain with picturesque canyons and vertical rocks. Seen from a distance, this landscape reminded me of the landscape of India's Ajanta Caves, however, the overall atmosphere is more comparable to the rock churches of Turkey's Goreme National Park or Greece's Meteora (without the monastery buildings though). It is believed that after Joachim I's return from Mount Athos, he cut out a small church in the rocks in the Lom River valley and later created a large rock monastery close to existing natural caves that were used as monk cells.

After parking deep inside the canyon area, I opted to take the stairs straight to the highlight of this WHS, namely the Church of the Holy Virgin (currently the only accessible one; open daily although might be closed from December to March). Although the church is quite small, when compared to its use at the time among single cells cut in the rock, cave monasteries and rock-hewn chapels, most only accessible by ropes, ladder or dangerous wooden staircases, it is considered as one of the largest churches in the canyon, with a chapel attached to its northern wall. The church is around 30 metres above the river level and in the past there was a defence ditch around it. A wooden enclosure with …

In 2019, our group had a meetup. It seems pretty far away with a full year (and counting) of Covid travel limitations in the bag and the 2020 meetup having been cancelled. Anyhow.

As discussed elsewhere, we had settled on discovering the hidden jewels of Bulgaria. It was not visited much, so everyone could get their fair share of new ticks. And the assumption was that if one looks hard enough, a seasoned world heritage traveller would find a jewel among the world heritage sites; they can't all be mediocre?

Personally, I assumed Ivanovo would be a hidden gem. Rock hewn churches trigger memories of Petra, St Emilon, Matera, ... and longing for Ethopia. But Ivanovo clearly isn't in the same league as these sites. Ivanovo consists of a set of hermit caves that were somewhat sculpted and painted. They are dotted across the landscape. That's roughly it.

Getting There

We stayed in Russe, a scenic, somewhat touristy town on the Danube and came by car. I am not sure if there is a public transport option, but taxis in Bulgaria should be an option.

While You Are There

Since 1984 the Bulgarian tentative list holds a site called The Roussensky Lom National Park. We weren't quite sure what to make out of it and what precisely constitutes the national park, so some of us went off to an early morning futile geo caching exercise. Philipp and I essentially needed a machete at …

After an overnight stay in the pleasant border town of Ruse, located at the Danube and connected to Romania by a bridge, the WH Travellers community went into the countryside via inland roads. We entered the Roussensky Lom national park, which is on Bulgaria's Tentative List. The official description of it has only 2 sentences: it is a "unique combination of natural beauty and cultural elements" and it is home to endangered birds of prey such as falcon, vulture and buzzard. Maybe they should work on that OUV statement a bit more…

What is special is that there is already a WHS in the park: the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo. That is our main goal of this morning. The Rock Churches comprise a complex of former monasteries, churches, cells and chapels, carved out of the rock by monks during the 13th and 14th centuries. The interior walls are covered with murals, which are regarded as special examples of medieval Christian art from this region.

To visit you pass through a forest via a gradually sloping path. Along the way, there are beautiful views over the nature reserve and I found it wonderful to walk here in the glorious weather.

The only accessible rock church can already be recognized from a distance by its wooden extension. This seems to protect visitors from falling out of the cave chapel from a great altitude. The church itself has been roughly cut out of the rocks, perhaps it’s a widening of …

Staying overnight in Ivanovo, I walked about 5 km to the site. I was not able to hitch a car because most people driving towards the site were tourists and not locals.

Out of the 5 monuments, only Holy Virgin's Rock Church, which is supposedly part of Archangel Michael's cloister, is open to tourists.

From the parking lot there are two ways to get to the church: one goes directly up the stairs and the other meanders leisurely.

There seem to be many religious remains on rock cliffs around Bulgaria, and the sole reason this one has its OUV confirmed is because of the quality of the frescoes, I understand.

But still all we see is just one little cave church. It would be so much nicer if we could visit all 5 monuments in the site.

A few words about the village of Ivanovo. Perhaps because most tourists visit the site from Ruse, there are very few infras for tourists in this village. No ATMs to begin with. There are 2 hotel-restaurants, one of which was closed when I was there. (I had a reservation with the other one.) The restaurant where I had dinner didn't have everything listed in the menu. But because only locals usually eat here, it was extremely cheap. A glass of impressive red wine from Razgrad, Bulgaria, was only 0.4 Euros (40 cents) there!

In November 2012 I have visited the Rock Churches of Ivanovo and for me was a very nice day. A couple of friends and I traveled by car from Bucharest (Romania) to Ruse (Bulgaria) and then to the UNESCO site which is only 20 km away from Ruse. First you should know that you have to climb some stairs, some big stone stairs but do not worry it is not so hard. The churches were made in stone on the canyon created by the river Rusenski Lom. There are many cave that were inhabited by the monks, some said even 300, but only a few have the famous paintings. The frescoes dates from 13th and 14th centuries and now are preserved in only 5 UNESCO ones. The only one open to visit is St. Archangel Michael Chapel ("The Buried Church"). It is a small place and there is no guide or book or something but you have to pay an entrance fee… those should be the minor things just because the place is gorgeous and fragile. I didn’t like that they do not interdict the using of the flash of the cameras because you know that those painting are sensitive to light. You should go there even by bike :D

The only rock-hewn church open to the public is the church of Archangel Michael. By visiting on a Sunday I found that there were a number of other visitors climbing the steep path up to the cave entrance, but only a few were admitted at a time.

The colours of the ancient frescoes on the walls and ceiling are still vivid.

I reached the site by train from Ruse to Ivanovo, from where it was a 5km walk down into the gorge of the Lom River to the site.

If you are doing a tour of Bulgaria and are in the Ruse area then the Rock Churches of Ivanovo are worth trying to fit in. Their cliffside location is quite impressive (see photo – the main caves are behind the glass window in centre) and the murals are interesting for their realism (no photo as Els only allows 1 photo per reviewer but the UNESCO site photo gives an impression of how they cover the walls and roof!) If you are visiting monasteries like Rila as well you may get a bit overwhelmed with murals unless you are an “expert” but these in some way act as a nice counterpoint to those in the full sized monastery!

For our visit in May 2000 we had a rentacar and it was an easy drive from Ruse. But be warned, they are not always open. The external view as per my photo is hardly worth a major journey by public transport (the caves are also a few kms walk up the gorge from the village). The day we were there luckily a coach party of Bulgarians had arrived and the couple who look after the churches were present. If you do arrive and the churches are closed the guardians lived in one of the houses across the stream (The River Rusenski Lom) from the cliff so you might persuade them to open