Dryanovski monastery “Sv. Archangel Michail” (“St. Archangel Michael”)

The monastery existed at the time of the reign of Asenovtci brothers in the XII century. It was built up for the commemoration of the victories of the Bulgarians under Byzantium and that is why it was named after the strategist Michail. During the centuries later on it was destroyed two times and renovated at its present place in 1845. To the temple there was a church , built halfly in the ground. The cloiser is a monument of the unsatiable thirst of freedom of the Bulgarians . In its stone walls one can see the holes, made by the guns of the Ottoman leader Fazla pasha. The museum collection of documents and relics tells about the epic battles. The Dryanovski monastery is situated 4 km. south-west from the town of Dryanovo and 21 km. from Gabrovo.Hidden in the gorge of the river, the cloiser is surrounded by high rocks and woody slopes. Very interesting in the area of the monastery is the well known in Bulgaria cave , named Bacho Kiro, which is one of the oldest inhabited caves in Bulgaria, found in 1890. From 1964 the cave is wired, well laid out and adapted for a mass visit.The cave has three layers.In front of the visiters a fabulous underground world is revealed.There are exposed cultural layers of 5 m. thickness from the middle and late Paleolith and are found bones from the Quarternary fauna. Dryanovo is an old Bulgarian settlement. In the middle of the XVIII century the town is a craft’s centre with big craft-guilds. During the Bulgarian Revival Dryanovo concentrated revolutionary ideas. At the time of the Russian –Turkish War in the Bulgarian army of volunteers there are many people from Dryanovo. Tryavna is settled at the north foot of the Shipchenski-Trevnenski part of Stara planina Range. The region was settled at the time of the Antique.At the end of the XVII and in the beginning of the XIX century when the crafts, the applied art and trade were established, the town florished.The Trevnenski master- builders, wood-carvings and icon-painters carried away the glory of the region.