Convent of The Dormition of The Virgin
The Arbanassi Convent of the Dormition of the Virgin is situated in the
north-western part of the village. It was also probably first built in the
Middle Ages because of its proximity to an old fort and a Roman road. A belfry
was built over the entrance on the east after the Liberation. There is an
inscription about its rebuilding in 1836. In the first centuries of Ottoman
bondage it was abandoned and the church served as a parish church. The silver
plated, miracleworking, icon of The Virgin with the Three Hands , which is kept
in the monastery is dated to that period. The church is a low, single-aisle
building with one apse, two narthexes and a fairly large chapel of the Holy
Trinity on the north side. It was restored in 1880. In 1716 new cells and farm
buildings were erected by the monk Danail of Troyan who was its abbot. It was
robbed by the Kurdjalis who attacked Arbanassi in 1788, later restored and
turned into a convent, remaining so to this day.
The murals in the aisle are the work of an unknown master and were painted in
1600. Those in the women's section were painted in 1603. There is an inscription
in church Slavonic over the chapel entrance with the names of the icons painter
Daskal (Schoolmaster) Kosta, Tsonyu and Gerge (Georgi) and the year 1704 when
the murals were painted. The icons were painted by the Tryavna icon painter
Zachari Tsanyuv and his son, Tsanyu Zachariev.
