URVICH FORTRESS (Boni Petrunova – boni_boon@abv.bg) The explorations of St. Elias Church continued. Two graves and several re-burials were explored in the yard, 130 sq. m in size and located to the north of the church. Room No. 2 was discovered at 13 m to the south of Room No. 1. Room No. 2 measured 4 m by 4 m and its walls were 70 – 90 cm wide. Late Antique and Mediaeval material was found: sherds, coins and nails. Room No. 4, 9 m by 3.50 m in size, was documented to the north of Room No. 2. An oven was explored in its southwestern corner. Another oval oven constructed of bricks, 1.60 m by 0.83 m in size, was explored at the outer side of the southern wall of the room. Room No. 2 was the kitchen of the monastery, while Room No. 4 was most probably the refectory. The refectory was destroyed by fire and a copper Ottoman coin of Suleiman II was found under the collapsed tiles of the roof. Room No. 3 measured 2.50 m by 3 m and was located to the southeast of the apse of the church. It was partly explored during the 1980s. There was a stove inside the room. A sondage was carried out and Thracian sherds of the Early Iron Age and of the second half of the 5th – first half of the 4th centuries BC were found. The Urvich Fortress was conquered by the Ottomans at the end of the 1370s, when Sofia fell under Ottoman rule. After the Ottoman conquest, a monastery continued to exist on the site, set up around St. Elias Church. In 1683 the Ottoman army was defeated in the Battle of Vienna and the advancing Austrian troops reached territory located at c. 30 km from Sofia. The Christians in Western Bulgaria revolted against the Ottoman rule, but the Austrians were forced to withdraw and repressions against the Christians followed. In that time the Urvich Monastery was burned.