This image is showing a very large cooking pot that were used to cook for hundreds of people every day in the 15th century. These pots were in Rila Monastery’s magernitsa (the large communal kitchen) where big pots and pans once simmered over open fires and dark smoke gushed out of the cone-shaped chimney roof. The King of the Monastery fed his disciples and people of his kingdom each day and these pots were used to cook meals. This is the story behind this image.