Patriarchal Monastery of the Holy Trinity is located along the river Yantra, 6 km from Veliko Tarnovo. There were several versions of the monastery over the centuries. Officially, it is known that in 1847 Kolyo Ficheto built the monastery’s church and the icon painter Zahari painted it. In 1913, due to strong earthquake,the monastery in Veliko Tarnovo was destryed and rebuilt later.

According to some researchers Patriarchal Monastery was founded in 1070 and the argument for this hypothesis is given by the inscription found during the construction of the new church in 1847. According to another version, the monastery was found during the reign of Ivan Alexander, by Theodosius and Patriarch Evtimii. In 1375 the monk Evtimii was chosen Patriarch in Tarnovo and since then the monastery is called a patriarchal monastery.

The Holy Trinity Monastery has become the the center of a famous literary schools ” Tarnovo School “. The school work consisted in spelling reform and creation of language rules.In this literary school are educated famous writers such as Grigore Tsamblak and Konstantin Kostenechki.
During the Ottoman conquest of Tarnovo city, the Patriarchal Monastery was looted and destroyed. In 15 -18 centuries, the monastery is under the auspices of the leaders of Wallachia and Moldavia, wherefore more seats are reserved. At the moment of resuming the monastery activity in 1847, four such certificates from Vlachs leaders were found preserved among which – Ion and Stefan Cantacuzino, Ion Alexandru Gika, Ion Ypsilanti and Ioan Constantin. During the Kurdzhali raids, at the beginning of the 19 th century, the monastery was looted and abandoned.

The Patriarchal monastery was restored in 1847 with the help of local people, but at a distance of one kilometer from the old monastery. Then a new church was built, work of Nikola Ficheto and painted by Zahari Zograf. In 1913 a major earthquake collapsed a large part of the monastery, including the church, of which only one part of icons and the iconostasis have survived. In 1927 the monastery was rebuilt, but in a new form and modified concept and the streamlined design of the rebuilt church is different from that of Kolyo Ficheto.
Until 1946, when the first nuns come, the Patriarchal Monastery belomg to monks, and became officially a monastery for monks in 1948.

Today the Holy Trinity operates as a monastery for nuns.