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Bachkovo Monastery is the second largest in Bulgaria. It was founded in 1083 by the Georgian on Byzantine service Gregory Bakuriani and his brother Abasii. The monastery is a unique blend of Georgian-Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian Orthodox culture.

At the end of XI century there was formed literary school known as Petritsonska - a name originating from the original name of the neighboring fortress of Petrich. By the translation of scholars working in the monastery, among them the famous disciple of John Ital - the Georgian philosopher John Petritsi (1050-1130) the medieval Georgian relations with Byzantium were made.

Long tradition is suggesting that under the altar of the church "St. Archangels" was buried a holy man. It is assumed that this is where the last Bulgarian Patriarch Evtimii of Turnovo found peace at last.

At the end of XVI the renovation of the monastery began, which lasted until the middle of XVII century. In 1604 was erected the present monastery's main church "Virgin Mary". It was built on the foundations of the old church that modeled the Mount Athos’ triconchal chapels.

It maintains one of the earliest (the first decades of XVII century) wood-carved iconostasis in the Bulgarian lands. The bottom is built of travertine altar wall on which are erected the wooden parts of the iconostasis: belt of royal icons, three-part architrave and two rows of small icons. They form an embossed architectural frieze, crowned with tall wooden cross.

Ossuary of the monastery is the only preserved building of the XI century. In the two-storey building, built in 1601 are located the ancient monastery kitchen and beside it there is a beautiful dining room with preserved wall gallery of seventeenth century. The old dining room is located in the preserved part of the southern wing of the monastery. Built simultaneously with the main church at the beginning of XVII century, it is a rectangular room with a semi-cylindrical vault and apse of the west wall, where sat the abbot. The original marble table made in 1601 is preserved, of which the monks ate in more than three centuries. In 1643 the dining room is decorated with frescoes, which artistic merit can be compared only with the most prominent examples of Mount Athos and in particular to paintings in the dining room of the Great Lavra "St. Athanasius" (1535).

From the same period in the monastery are preserved remarkable works of applied art - magnificent church plate, plates of manuscripts, some of which are preserved in the monastery's museum, while others – in the Church’s Historical and Archaeological Museum in Sofia.

The main church of the monastery is called the "Holy Assumption". Because of its grandeur and its unusual architecture from the beginning of the XVII century it is a national masterpiece. Here is kept the miraculous icon of Virgin Mary, donated by pilgrims from Georgia in 1311. Already more than 350 years, the Monday after Easter, it is removed from the monastery to site of Kluviyata, where it was hidden during the Ottoman rule. One legend says that during the seventeenth century it was accidentally found there and returned to the monastery where several mysterious disappearing happened. The icon was returning the rocks until it was placed on a special altar. It is a common belief that touching the icon, the sick recover.