Matchstick Rila Monastery by Plamen Ignatov

Man Spends 16 Years Building 6-Million-Matchstick Model

By Spooky on January 16th, 2012 Category: Art, Pics

Bulgarian artist Plamen Ignatov, has dedicated the last 16 years of his life to making a detailed matchstick model of the Rila Monastery, from around 6 million matchsticks.

Now, we’ve posted a lot of impressive matchstick creations, from the model of Minas Tirith built by Patrick Anton, to the matchstick fleet of David Reynolds, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a detailed model. Just hearing that the artist spent 16 years working on it, one can tell he was seriously passionate about assembling this matchstick masterpiece, and after laying eyes on it, you understand why it took him so long. The whole religious complex is incredibly detailed, with even the shingles realistically reproduced, and Ignatov even managed to fit a picture of Jesus into one of the walls, and painted religious figures on the wooden pavement of the monastery courtyard.

Photo © EPA / Vassil Donev

Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Orthodox monasteries in Bulgaria, and is regarded as one of the most important cultural and historical monuments in Southern Europe. It is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.