Chiprovtsi Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery 5 kilometres northeast of the town of Chiprovtsi in Montana Province in northwestern Bulgaria. It belongs to the diocese of Vidin and lies in the valley of the Ogosta river.
According to Petar Bogdan, the monastery was built in the 10th century and remained a religious and cultural centre despite Tatar and Magyar raids in the 13th century, the Ottoman invasion in the 14th century and Michael the Brave's raids in the 16th century. The monastery has been razed six times, in 1412, 1688, 1806, 1828, 1837 and 1876, with the one of 1688 after the Chiprovtsi Uprising being particularly devastating. The current monastery church was built in 1829.
The Chiprovtsi Monastery consists of a church dedicated to Saint John of Rila, residential buildings, a small graveyard and a three-storey tower featuring an ossuary, a chapel and a belfry.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.