Medieval monastery with well preserved frescoes, the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo are situated in Northern Bulgaria, 20 km south of the City of Ruse, on the high rocky banks of the Rusenski Lom, near the village of Ivanovo. Some of them are up to 36 m above the river. They form a monastery complex comprising about 20 medieval churches, chapels and cells with uncovered traces of more than 300 rooms. The churches are small, 20-30 square metres in size. They were inhabited during the 11th – 14th centuries by monks, scholars and bookmen.

Rich cultural and spiritual life is believed to have flourished there during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. Many came on pilgrimage there. Kings and noblemen sent hewers to carve new churches in the rocks, and painters to create holy images. The Bulgarian patriarch Ioakim retired there from the capital city of Turnovgrad. Tsar Georgi Terter is believed to have spent the final years of his life there.

Part of the rock temples have been destroyed by earthquakes. The names of the surviving Ivanovo Rock Churches have been forgotten over the centuries and the local population has given them new ones according to its own custom: “Gospodev dol” (God’s valley) where the image of Christ can be seen through a rock opening in one of the churches; the area “Pismata” (“The writings”) - for the signs and inscriptions preserved there. One church was called “Zatrupanata” (“The Buried One”), and another one, simply - “Tsarkvata” (“The Church”).

The church walls are covered with frescoes from various ages. In the Buried Church there is a portrait of Tsar Ivan Assen II, the church benefactor, holding a miniature model of the church. “The church”, whose benefactor was Tsar Ivan- Alexander (1331- 1371), has the most interesting murals. They are characterized by a great expressiveness and a dramatic rendition of the sufferings of Christ. All the participants in the mass scenes are moving, gesturing and representing the atmosphere of tragedy and doom.

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo were included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List at the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Committee session of 1979 in Luxor, Egypt.