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Dryanovo Monastery is located 5 km southwest of Dryanovo and 15 km of Gabrovo. In the place where the monastery was built, there are one of the oldest settlements in the Balkans. The monastery is situated in the picturesque gorge of the Dryanovo.

The monastery is located in the gorge, inhabited by primitive people 100,000 years ago. There are over 6,000 artifacts from that time. In the Middle Ages the two forts "Boruna" and "City" were built in the area.

It is believed that the monastery "St. Archangel Michael "was built in XII century during the reign of King Kaloyan. According to Orthodox canons, Dryanovo Monastery was built at the place where the procession with the holy remains of St. Michail Voyn spend a night. Already in the Middle Ages it became a cultural and spiritual center. Various sources indicate that there lived up to 500 monks. The medieval building of the monastery is located 2 km from the present one, opposite the cave Andaka.

During Ottoman rule the monastery was destroyed and looted three times. Its current location was restored in 1845 when the small church "St. Archangel Michael" was built. It is a stone dome with octahedral bell. The building was dug into the ground. The church “Assumption of the Holy Virgin " was built in 1861 and its iconostasis was made in 1876 by N. Yonkov.

During the April uprising in 1876 in Dryanovo Monastery revolutionaries like father Matey Preobrazhenaski - Mitkaloto, Georgi Izmirliev - Makedoncheto and others seek a refuge. The monastery was converted by the detachment of Pop Hariton into a fortress. The detachment fought with the turkish army for ten days, outnumbered and without supplies. With the defeat of the uprising, as claimed by the then Abbot Pachomius, the flames burned all the books from the monastery library. Today these tragic events remind the ossuary at the monastery. It is the work of the designer Giovanni Mosutti and the sculptor Luca Argini. The ossuary was consecrated on May 4, 1897. Next to it there is a sculpture of a revolutionary.


The story tells that after the uprising, Abbot Pachomius served a memorial service in memory of the fallen revolutionaries. Only ruined church "St. Michael" survivied the fire and it was riddled with turkish shrapnel. After reconstruction and restoration of the monastery in 1880, the church was left in the same condition in memory of the tragedy.

Four windows, located on each of the longitudinal walls illuminate the church, and two doors, one of which - the main, is on the west wall and the other - on the north wall. They gave access to the original temple.The church probably had three domes - two Sediments above and one below the altar.

In the region of Dryanovo Monastery is the famous cave "Bacho Kiro". The monastery is easily reached by car from Gabrovo and Veliko Tarnovo. Nearby is the railway station. The monastery is one of the most respected in Bulgaria. It was declared a cultural monument.