Holy Monastery of Zographou

It was built during the tenth century by three brother, the monks Moses, Aaron and John (Ioannis) from Achris (Ohrid). It is dedicated to Saint George. It occupies the ninth rank in the hierarchical order of the twenty Athonite monasteries. It is inhabited by 15 monks (1990) and is coenobitic (communal). Initially, the monastery was inhabited by Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbs. Its monks are all Bulgarian, since 1845, and the services are performed in Bulgarian.

The monastery is situated on a slope of the S.W. part of the peninsula. The Katholicon was built in the beginning of the last century and follows the athonite type. The monastery was founded, according to tradition, in the 10th c. by three brothers, Moses, Aaron and Ioannis from Achris. In the Late Byzantine period, the monastery is destroyed by Catalan pirates and rebuilt with the financial support of the Paleologan dynasty, as well as that of rulers of eastern Europe.

Besides two miraculous icons of St George and other two of the Virgin of the Akathistos and the Virgin Epakouousa, the monastery owns and other heirlooms and ecclesiastical vessels. The library is located in the monastery's tower. It features rare manuscripts, Greek and Bulgarian codices, and 10,000 printed books in Greek and the Slavic languages. Its most prized treasure is the codice 1, which contains Bulgaria's first history, written by the monk Paisios in 1745.