Every Bulgarian knows it used to be the capital of the medieval kingdom of the Bulgarians just before the Ottomans invaded, in the late 14th century. It is now the home to a large university, many cafés and restaurants, and a reconstructed fortress commanding stupendous views for miles around.
It was in fact paid for by a Turk who bought out hay from the locals only to sell it back to them at a significant profit. Being Muslim, he commissioned the bridge to be built entirely in the Ottoman tradition, with red and yellow decorative stripes, spawning the moniker Colourful Bridge.
The lions came around the turn of the 20th century when the bridge was rebuilt with significant modifications. It is now one of the symbols of the city it is in.
Held every year on the same date, 3 June, in a village deep in the Strandzha in southeastern Bulgaria, the walking-on-fire is the culmination of several weeks of preparations accompanied by minor and major performances by locals in what is a characteristic amalgamation of Christian and pagan rites.
Some folk-themed entertainment venues in Bulgaria put up commercial shows meant strictly for tourists, but the real thing happens once a year, in one particular village.
Those with an interest in cultural heritage and history will inevitably relate it to its multitude of ancient monuments related to the Thracians, ancient tribes who lived in these lands before the Bulgarian state was founded in the 7th century. The Thracians were skilful goldsmiths who famously drank their wine undiluted. They provide another moniker for the location, Valley of the Thracian Kings.
It has been immortalised in various works of fiction by US writers including John Updike and Elizabeth Kostova. Yet few people have ventured to spend a night within its sturdy confines, and even fewer have attended some of the major religious high days' rites the monks conduct with unparalleled enthusiasm and solemnity. The Orthodox Easter midnight mass wins hands down amongst those.
Your only company will likely be the seagulls hovering above your head. With several dozen mainly Byzantine churches, this town, a few miles south of a notorious Black Sea resort, is a major site rightfully inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage list. If you are lucky, you might be able to experience some very rare snow, which usually does not stay for more than a day or two.
Located in the Thracian Plain just outside Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, it is hidden in a huge mound where the digs are still ongoing. Despite the media frenzy and speculations that the enormous structure emerging from the ground is anything from the tomb of a Roman emperor to the deed of extraterrestrials, no one actually knows what this really is.
One is the area around this small town whose bizarre-looking rocks have been used as a natural fortification for centuries. Nineteenth century travellers marvelled at it, and generations of locals devised fairy tales about the strange rocks. Exploring them will strain both your legs and your imagination.
A tiny church is perched on a steep rock overlooking the narrow gorge of the Chepelarska River. A winding road leads up to the height, where the remains of the castle are, a brick-and-mortar confection in the Byzantine style popular across the Balkans in the 12th-14th centuries. Today, the nearby town is famous mostly for its numerous shops selling affordable wedding and prom gowns, but the tourists come solely for the fortress before venturing deeper into the Rhodope.
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Communism collapsed in 1989, however, and since then the grounded man-made UFO has ran to seed. Neither the heirs to the Communists, nor the Bulgarian state have taken any care of it and the building, or whatever remains of it, is now in severe danger of collapsing. Significantly, the J. Paul Getty Foundation in the United States recently granted funding to survey the monument and possibly conserve it.
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It has several millennia of history, but some of the most fascinating locations to visit date only to the 19th century. Situated on three hills and collectively referred to as the Old Town, these fabulous mansions and residences belonging to well-to-do citizens of many faiths and nationalities are among the best preserved examples of Ottoman architecture and lifestyle in the world.
It has several millennia of history, but some of the most fascinating locations to visit date only to the 19th century. Situated on three hills and collectively referred to as the Old Town, these fabulous mansions and residences belonging to well-to-do citizens of many faiths and nationalities are among the best preserved examples of Ottoman architecture and lifestyle in the world.
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They have probably visited the sanctuaries at Begliktash by the Black Sea and Belintash in the Rhodope. Tatul, the supposed resting place of Orpheus, is probably high on their list. Yet there is another ancient sanctuary-cum-tomb, as – if not more – evocative than Tatul but far less explored, mainly because it is off the beaten track.
Perched on top of a hill, it commands stupendous views to the nearby hills and waters, and holds a number of mysteries that will set your imagination in motion for weeks on end.
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The mountains contain everything you imagined about the Balkans, and more. The inimitable ethnic mix, the variety of religions, the changing scenery from village to village, from river to river, the assortment of Ottoman-era bridges, the mosques and the churches: they are all there to explore.
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One such place, just a few miles away from the Sofia-Burgas motorway, astounds with its truly surreal colours that evoke Death Valley in California. Yet, this is not the Wild West: there is plenty of verdant woods around as well as an abundance of water that just add to its otherworldliness. Obviously, a disused mining pit in the middle of nowhere, it can easily take a day to explore.
It has retained plenty of its quaint charm, but at the same time is one of the few Bulgarian small cities that has eschewed the pitfalls of post-Communism. In fact, its economy after 1989 has done remarkably well. It crowns our selection of Bulgaria's Top 10 small cities that we'll bring you in the first issue of Vagabond in 2019.
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The roads it used to connect have long been defunct and in fact are impossible to identify. But the bridge is still there. Owing to its subtle, sometimes even ominous charm it has gained a nickname, The Devil's Bridge. There are several local legends detailing the supposed reasons for this, and we will look at them at length in the next issue of Vagabond.
The bridge sits about 10 miles from a bigger town in the Rhodope.
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Urbex, as it has come to be known in the Western world, is just sprouting in this country. In the next issue of this journal we will be bringing you a comprehensive overview of some of Bulgaria's top Urbex locations, the one pictured here included.
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Perched on top of the hill is a Communist-era monument that from a distance looks like a huge washing peg. You can drive all the way up to the monument – highly recommended especially when it is dark as this is one of Bulgaria's better dark skies locations. In the future you may not remember what that monument stood for. However, what will probably stay in your memory is the drive itself.
In fact, this country is full of drives like this, through mountains, plains and the seaside, but you have to know how to find them.
You pull over by the side of the road and you are simply dumbfounded: a huge horseshoe bend is just in front of you. You pinch yourself and then you realise you are not in Arizona, but in the midst of the Bulgarian Rhodope, and the river you are staring at is one of this country's longest water sources that feeds several reservoirs, some of them very big, and that goes through most of the Rhodope's dramatic scenery before it leaves Bulgaria and hits the Aegean Sea.
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