The Merdanski monastery “St Forty Martyrs” is situated in the eastern end of the village of Merdanya (Veliko Turnovo region), on the main road connecting the town of Veliko Turnovo with the town of Elena.
Remains of a medieval monastery, believed to date back to the rule of Tsar Ivan Assen II, have been found about 1.5km away from the present-day monastery in an area called Ushite (the Ears). At the time Bulgaria was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, the old monastery was ruined down, while its properties were taken by Turkish ‘beys’ (administrators). In the middle of the 19th c. a rich citizen of Elena, Hadzhi Kesarii Horozov, bought out the former estates of the monastery. In 1853, he built a church and residential buildings with his own funds and became father superior of the newly opened monastery.
