Chirpan Monastery Is the Oldest in Europe

The Monastery of St Athanasius, also known as Zlatna Livada Monastery or Chirpan Monastery, is an Orthodox convent in southern Bulgaria. It stands near the village of Zlatna Livada, on a hill above the village, on the right bank of the Stara River, not far from its confluence with the Maritsa, 14 km from Chirpan and 53 km south of Stara Zagora.
During Ottoman rule, the church was built of wood, and the monastery sheltered prominent figures such as Paisius of Hilendar, hajduk voivodes, Vasil Levski and other fighters for national freedom. After 1944, under communism, it was used as a sheepfold for the local cooperative farm. According to legend, St Athanasius appeared in a dream to the local party secretary and warned him that he would lose his child unless he stopped the desecration. In the early 1950s, the monastery buildings were released for church use, and in the late 1970s the monastery was renovated at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture. The new monastery building, in a traditional style, makes the complex one of the largest monasteries in modern Bulgaria.
The monastery complex includes a church restored in 1961, a hermit's cave, a holy spring with healing water in the courtyard below it, old unrestored buildings dating from 1840, and new wings built in 1979. The Stara River separates the hermit's cave from the monastery, and Vasil Levski's hiding place is among the monastic cells.
The monastery also has its own legends, with the Thracians associated with the discovery of the healing power of the spring water. The water is believed to cure various illnesses and even to have a beneficial effect on tumours. The hermit's cave is also considered to have healing powers.