The Plakovo Monastery "Saint Iliya" is situated near the Kapinovo monastery. It is located in a beautiful site at about 15 km south of Veliko Turnovo. The monastery has also been built during the period of the Second Bulgarian State. Some evidence about the monastery and the life in it can be found in the old books from XVI , XVII and XVIII c. During the Ottoman yoke the monastery has been plundered and burned several times. There have been two successive big fires at the end of XVI c. and the beginning of XVII c. The monastery is renovated in 1643 which is understood by an inscription over the back entrance door of the monastery. At the beginning of XIX c. the monastery falls into a crisis when its abbot Yosif - a Greek in origin, plunders its treasures and destroys a huge amount of Slavic manuscripts. In 1835 as a result of a punishment action after the failure of a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire the monastery is again plundered and burned down. The buildings preserved till present-day time are from XIX c. The church is built by the great master-builder Kolyo Ficheto. Inside the church is not decorated but on the western wall there is a hewn stone inscription mentioning the year of its construction - 1845. The lack of mural paintings is compensated by the gorgeous wood-carved iconostasis. It has deep carvings with wounding ornaments and fretwork cornice. The author of the iconostasis icons "Saint Arthemii", "Saint Joan Rilski" and "Joan the Theologian", "Virgin Mary", "Jesus the Almighty" and "Joan the Baptist" is the great Revival Period artist Zahari Zograf. The icons are in the colours and the images typical for the artist. The present-day buildings of the monastery date from XIX c.