Bulgaria Guide
The Balkan Range and the Danubian Plain
The Balkan Range cuts right across the country, a forbidding swathe of rock known to the Bulgarians as the Stara planina – the "Old Mountains". In the seventh and eighth centuries, the Balkan Mountains were the birthplace of the Bulgarian nation-state. It was here, first at Pliska, and later at Preslav, that the Bulgar khans established and ruled over a feudal realm – known to historians as the "First Bulgarian Kingdom". Here too, after a period of Byzantine control, the Bulgarian nobility (the bolyari) proclaimed the "Second Kingdom" and established a new and magnificent capital at Veliko Tarnovo. During the Ottoman occupation, the villages and monasteries of the Stara planina helped to preserve Bulgarian traditions, preparing the ground for the re-emergence of native culture during the nineteenth-century National Revival.
The Danubian Plain from the northern foothills of the Balkan Range down to the banks of the river, which forms a natural boundary with Romania. Despite the name, it's by no means uniformly flat, rather a rich and hilly agricultural area. Travelling from the Danube towards the Black Sea coast you'll pass through the relatively unknown Dobrudzha, a rich, grain-producing plain which lies at the southernmost limits of the Eurasian Steppe. Although short on specific sights, its wide-open skies nevertheless exert a certain fascination.
Highlights
1 Belogradchik An amazing landscape of time-weathered limestone pillars and cliffs.
2 Ruse The most central-European of Bulgaria's urban centres, combining Art Nouveau architecture and absorbing museums with an invigorating, big-city feel.
3 The Rock Churches of Ivanovo A series of caves spectacularly decorated with medieval frescoes.
4 Lake Srebarna Reed-shrouded watery habitat with over eighty species of migrating birds, including a famous colony of Dalmatian Pelicans.
5 Troyan Monastery Bulgaria's third-largest monastery, famed for its vivid and often macabre frescoes by Zahari Zograf.
6 The Tsarevets, Veliko Tarnovo The remains of this imposing fortress occupy a commanding spot above the River Yantra.
7 Church of the Nativity, Arbanasi Though plain on the outside, this beautiful church is a riot of colour inside.
8 Tombul Dzhamiya Shumen's mosque serves as a major spiritual centre for the Turks of the northwest.
9 Thracian tombs The "Royal tomb" in Sveshtari is just one of many providing a window into the beliefs of Bulgaria's ancient inhabitants.