ALADJA Monastery is one of the 120 medieval rock monasteries close to the seaside that are rapidly becoming tourism hubs in their own right. The monastery offers an all-the-year-round sense of history and antiquity for both summer and winter tourists. It was founded during the Second Bulgarian kingdom, around the 13th century, and inhabited by hermit monks. It is located in the north-eastern part of Bulgaria, and situated in beautiful lush woodland about 17 km from Varna and four km from Golden Sands. Aladja monastery was opened in 1906 as a museum and tourist site, and was declared a national monument of culture and antiquity. It also houses a small museum that exhibits its colourful history.
Aladja monastery has a church, a smaller chapel and monastic cells that are regarded as important monument of medieval history. This is one of the few preserved and accessible rock monasteries in Bulgaria and conforms to the asceticism and the typically hermit lifestyle of the religious order of monks that lived there.
Aladja (meaning multi-coloured in Turkish), due most probably to the bright colours of its wall paintings, contains rooms carved into the rocks on two levels in the almost 40-meter high limestone rock. The monks' cells and rooms were carved inside the soft white limestone cliff. This was a retreat and a refuge, as opposed to the confidence and conviction of monasteries like Rila or Bachkovo.
The entrance to the monastery is on the eastern side of the first level and at the far end of the entrance hall, behind a stonewall, part of which still exists, was the crypt. On the left side next to the staircase, there is a corridor which leads to the refectory, the kitchen and six hermit cells. The chapel was located in the centre and the western side of the rock hill. Aladja monastery is decorated with religious frescoes, but unfortunately most of them are damaged today. Only few of the frescoes have been preserved well enough to be viewed with any clarity in the chapel.
Having survived turbulent times, it has been a zealous guardian of Bulgarian culture, language and orthodoxy. The monastery's history fascinates visitors and is surrounded in myths and speculation. For example, life in Aladja monastery is said to have declined when Bulgaria fell under Ottoman rule in the end of the 14th century but the extent to which this may be true is still contested.
Katakombite (the catacombs), are a group of caves that share a similar history to those of Aladja Monastery, but have suffered even more by the passage of time, being in an even worse state that the relatively well preserved monastery. They are located less than a km away to the west from Aladja monastery. Archaeologists have found pottery and coins there that prove that the Catacombs were inhabited in the Early Christianity period between the fourth and sixth century.
Close to the monastery and the catacombs is Usun Cum beach (the long beach), a magnificent two km long stretch of coastline, which draws summer tourists in addition to those visiting for cultural tourism and recreation.