Five centuries subjugated to Ottoman rule and, more recently, four decades locked very firmly behind the Iron Curtain turned Bulgaria into a distant, enigmatic country in the eyes of much of the rest of the world. Images of cheap wine downed at student house parties, budget ski holidays and umbrella-wielding Cold War assassins were once among the popular stereotypes, but Bulgaria today is a vastly different country from what it was even 10 years ago.
For most foreign holidaymakers, Bulgaria’s main lure is its long, sandy Black Sea Coast – which still boasts swaths of stunning beaches and picturesque bays despite the expansive construction work – but there is so much more to this country, and so much of it remains largely untouched and unvisited by overseas tourists. Networks of well-maintained hiking trails and horse-riding routes allow you to discover Bulgaria’s lush mountainous and forested landscapes, especially around the Rila and Pirin Mountains, inhabited by bears, lynx, rare birds and other kinds of wildlife now becoming scarce elsewhere in Europe. Getting around the country is easy, with cheap and efficient public transport to ferry you between the cities and into the remoter, rural corners, where the traditional, slow pace of life continues much as it has done for centuries.
Here you’ll come across multicoloured monasteries, filled with fabulous icons and watched over by bushy-bearded priests, and impossibly pretty timber-framed villages with smoke curling lazily over the stone-tiled roofs and donkeys complaining in the distance, where headscarfed old ladies and their curious grandchildren still stare in wonderment at the arrival of outsiders. The cities, too, are often overlooked highlights, from dynamic, cosmopolitan Sofia with its lovely parks, sociable alfresco bars and fascinating museums, to the National Revival architectural treasures and Roman remains of Plovdiv, and the youthful maritime cockiness of Varna. A fully paid-up member of NATO and (since 2007) the EU, Bulgaria has the feel of a nation at a very important crossroads. Massive foreign investment has created a construction boom, not just around the larger beach and mountain tourist resorts, but in the cities, too. More tourists than ever are discovering this country and an ever-rising number of foreigners are investing in property here.

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The French traveler Germon Blanky wrote the next on the Belogradchishki Skali in the far 1841: “Neither the famous narrow passes of Aulihul in Provance, neither the Pancarbo Gorge in Spain, neither the Alps, neither the Pyrenees, nor the most eminent Tyrol mountains in Switzerland have anything, which can be compared with what I saw in Bulgaria in the town of Belogradchik”. The known Felix Kanits appends: “It’s hardly probable that a more romantic fortress than the Belogradchik one has ever been built”.

The region is one of the natural wonders of Bulgaria! A fairytale stone world surrounds Belogradchik from west, south and southeast. If you come from Sofia by car you will see at first the Falkov-Borovets group of rocks with Momina Skala (Maiden’s Rock), Pchelin kamak, Torlaka, Borovishki Kamak and etc. Lipenitsa group is to the east of the town among which biggest interest evoke the Dinosaur and the Latin Kale (a strategic fortress surrounded by a fortified wall). It is worth seeing the Lepenishka Cave in which coaled wheat and watercrafts dating 2000 years ago were found, and the Izvozki oak - more than 1200 years old. Among the Zbegovska group of rocks to the west of the town a great impression make the Twins, the rocks in the area called Magaza, Small and Big Zbeg, which were used as fortresses, the lonely obelisk Borich and the Belogradchik stone bridge. The primal group rises right away above the town. One can see about 100 m high lonely rocks named Adam and Eve, the delicate Madonna, Konika (The Rider), Uchenichkata (The Female Student), Mechkata (The Bear), the Dervish (Muslim clergyman), the impressive Borov Kamak, Mo-na-site (The Monks), the terrific kale with ancient fortress walls, above which the most magic rock wonders rise.