Klara Obretenova, Architekton Alexi Rilets
“ They should know the millennium-old history of our wonderful, small country that has preserved the memory of the hope and faith of the people’s enlighteners who carried in their hearts the Bulgarian spirit. ”
Klara Obretenova, Architekton Alexi Rilets
“ If we carefully look at Hrelyo’s tower of the time before the battlements on its roof were built, when there was a parapet only, we shall see on the right behind it part of the eastern monastery wing, with its cells, attached to a high clock tower with a belfry, and, below the clock, pilasters finishing with a vaulted arch in the tower, in resemblance with the pilasters and arches that can be seen on Hrelyo’s tower on the right of which and a little bit forward the dome of the monastery church can be seen. ”
Klara Obretenova, Architekton Alexi Rilets
“ At the time when Master Alexi was in the summer of his strength, in 1784, the Rila Monastery restoration was completed, after the plunders of 1765, 1768 and 1778. When we follow the time and the possible separation of a young family (Alexi Rilets and Maria Yagoridkova) , when their son, Dimiter, was between 1 and 13 years old, it is most likely that the father was then near his family, i.e. he has participated in the construction of the Rila Monastery in 1784, in the expansion of Hrelyo’s church in 1784-1792, and in the building of St. Luke Church, in the east of the Rila Monastery, in 1796. ”
