The Monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God or, as it is more commonly called, the Troyan Monastery is the third largest monastery in Bulgaria. It is located in the northern part of the country in the Balkan mountains and was founded no later than the end of the 16^th century.

     The monastery is situated on the banks of the river Cherni Osam near Oreshak, a village 10 km from the picturesque town of Troyan, famous a popular tourist destination.

     The main church of the monastery was reconstructed near the end of the Ottoman rule over these lands by a master-builder called Konstantin in 1835. The ornate interior and exterior of the church were painted between 1847 and 1849 by Zahari Zograph, a popular Bulgarian painter of the time, who also painted the central church of the Rila Monastery, the largest monastery in Bulgaria. Many of the "moral and social experiments" of art at the time such as Doomsday and the Wheel of Life were reproduced at Troyan. One highly controversial feat of Zahari Zograph was to paint his image by one of the windows in the back of the church.

     The Troyan Monastery is, since the 17^th century, the home of one of the holiest icons in Bulgarian Orthodoxy, the Three-Handed Virgin. Many people make a pilgrimage to this monastery on St. George's Day because of another miraculous icon of St. George placed in the main church.