Belashtitsa Monastery

The monastery has been declared a monument of culture and consists of a church, chapel, dwellings and farm buildings.

The monastery was established in 1020 by the Byzantine commander Nikephoros Xiphias who became governor of Plovdiv in 1018.

Xiphias had important contributions for the Byzantine victory in the battle of Kleidion in 1014 which determined the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire four years later.

His regiments crossed the Belasitsa mountain and attacked the Bulgarian troops of Emperor Samuil in the rare.

According to the legent, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II gave to Xiphias some of the captured Bulgarians who built the village of Belasitsa near the monastery which was later renamed to Brestovitsa.