Aladzha Monastery is a rocky Orthodox monastery located 15 kilometres from the city of Varna. In this area, in caves hollowed out in the sheer lime rock, Christian hermits have lived since the IV century. In the XIII-XIV centuries the monastery became one of the centres of the spiritual and moral doctrine of Hesychasm, whose followers professed severe asceticism and moral perfection. By the end of the 14th century, after the Ottoman conquest, Aladzha Monastery was destroyed, but its caves were inhabited by hermits until the 18th century.
The monastery complex includes: 20 cells and household premises, a kitchen, a crypt, a refectory, a church for funeral services, two chapels and a kafolikon (cathedral monastery church) of the Holy Trinity. From the windows of the cells there is a magnificent view of the sea. The rooms used to be decorated with frescoes, the remains of which visitors can observe in the monastery chapel (there is a partially preserved wall painting of the XIII-XIV centuries, painted on the New Testament subject "Resurrection of Christ"). From these paintings and the name of the monastery ("aladzha" in Turkish means "colourful").
All rooms are located in two tiers of caves of forty-kametre rock. The total length of the hollowed out rooms is 500 metres.
Among Bulgarians there are many tales and legends associated with the Aladzha Monastery. The most interesting of them tells about a lonely monk who sometimes appears in the vicinity of the rock and asks random travellers how people live nowadays. After receiving an answer, the monk closes his eyes and disappears. It is said that the mysterious monk will ask his questions as long as the monastery and the ancient forest around it stands.
Today the monastery is not functioning and is part of the Varna Historical and Archaeological Museum and a cultural monument of national importance (since 1957).
