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Many travellers to Bulgaria don’t know where to add to their visit. And even if they do come across a good option, such as visiting Belogradchik, it’s hard to know what to expect. Is a long day or multiple days of travel really worth seeing the Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress?
My answer is most definitely yes, but I may be biased. I’ve long wanted to see Belogradchik for myself, so it was a priority for me when visiting Bulgaria for the second time.
Since we all have different interests and preferences, you may feel differently about this unusual Bulgarian attraction. Here’s my firsthand experience of going to Belogradchik while visiting Sofia and I’ll let you be the judge if a day trip here (or longer) is right for you.
Where is Belogradchik?
If you’re unable to find Belogradchik on a map, allow me to help. Belogradchik, both the town and its fortress, are found in the far northwest of Bulgaria, close to the Serbian border.
This region of Bulgaria is very sparsely settled, with mainly villages and several small towns in the area. Belogradchik is one of the larger towns you’ll see here. But as you’ll see from the viewpoints around the town, it’s mostly hills and mountains in this part of the country.
How to get to Belogradchik from Sofia
The two nearest cities to Belogradchik are Vidin and Sofia. Vidin, which sits on the Danube River and borders Romania, is closer but is out of the way for most travellers. This means that Sofia is most likely going to be your starting point for visiting Belogradchik.
There are three ways to get from Sofia to Belogradchik without a rental car, ranked here from hardest to easiest.
The hardest is to take the train from Sofia to Oreshets (also spelled Oreshec), a nearby village to Belogradchik. Trains run several times a day and take around 4 hours, after which you’ll need to take a taxi to Belogradchik. Based on travel time, it doesn’t work for a day trip, so you’ll want to stay somewhere in town.
A barely easier option is to go by bus to Belogradchik, but it too has issues. A daily bus leaves the bus station in Sofia at 16.30 and also takes around 4 hours. The return bus, I believe, leaves at 6 am, so you’ll need to stay at least 2 nights visiting this way as well.
The easy option is to simply take a Belogradchik tour from Sofia, as I did. I always try to do things independently when I travel, but sometimes tours are just the best option.
Not only did my Belogradchik tour handle the logistics, but it also allowed me to enjoy the scenery along the way, get lunch at a local restaurant, and visit a nearby cave.
A brief history of Belogradchik Fortress
Before visiting Belogradchik, I wasn’t especially bothered with learning its history. I just wanted to see this cool place with my own eyes. But Belogradchik Fortress has a long history that’s worth knowing about.
Archaeological evidence says that there has been a small fortress here since Roman times, roughly 100-300 AD. During the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 14th century, it was added to and the fortifications were improved. It was captured by the Hungarians and decades later by the Ottomans.
For Bulgarians, the most popular moments in history related to Belogradchik involve tales of Bulgarian rebels. Several times in the 1800s, rebels seized the fortress from the Ottomans, earning fame for their heroic deeds.
Velko is probably the most famous by name, who was responsible for capturing the fortress briefly in 1809. The information given at the fortress made him sound a bit like an outlaw.
Belogradchik Fortress was one of many garrison strongholds in this part of Bulgaria. But it was also near a mountain pass running through to Sofia, making it a valuable place to control. The fortress fell out of use after the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1185.
Visiting Belogradchik Fortress
As you approach the town of Belogradchik, you already see the strange rock spires that make the Belogradchik Rocks so memorable. To reach the fortress, you drive up from behind it and then weave your way up through town to a parking lot outside its main gate.
Normally, you’d buy your ticket and head into the fortress to look around. The day we went, we were met with huge trucks and van trailers in the parking lot. We’d arrived right in the middle of a movie (called Don’t Move) being filmed there!
Even though it was an active film set, the film crew let us visit the site during their lunch break. While we were lucky to be allowed in, the circumstances did affect the experience. I had to get creative with angles to avoid getting the ambulance and portaloos by its second gate in any photos.
The main course of a visit here is that you pass through a series of old gates, with stairways leading you higher and deeper into the fortress. At the top, you’re standing on a plateau with great views back down through the fortress, plus sweeping views of the region’s landscape.
Viewpoints of the Belogradchik Rocks
As filming resumed, our access to the fortress became quite limited and we left, maybe a little quicker than I would have liked. All told we only spent 30 to 45 minutes at the fortress, with I think one hour as long as you need there.
What this meant was we had some free time. The one option that I took up was to walk to a nearby lookout point among the Belogradchik Rocks.
Only maybe a 10-minute walk from the fortress entrance, the lookout is found up a narrow, slightly rickety staircase. Get to the top and you’re treated to superior views of the region. What makes this spot so good is that you get views back to the fortress. Not that you could tell it was one, as the fortress looks vastly different from this perspective.
Looking at the rocky pillars here, immediately brought some other strange rock formations to mind. Adrspach in the Czech Republic is remarkably similar and also lots of fun to visit. But you could also argue parts of Meteora in Greece closely resemble Belogradchik if you forget its monasteries.
Lunch at the Madona Inn
Following our time at Belogradchik Fortress and Rocks, it was time for lunch. Rather than eating at a restaurant in Belogradchik, we were taken to the Madonna Inn in the countryside. This is the kind of restaurant you’re unlikely to just stumble upon.
This traditional inn or “han” serves as a restaurant, hotel, and campground. Because it was such a nice day, we sat out on its terrace among eclectic rustic knickknacks.
You can have all sorts of typical Bulgarian dishes here, but their signature meal is the Madonna kebab seen below. We were told it was special without getting an actual description, making the reveal even more entertaining. While I didn’t want to ruin this cute creation, a tasty casserole of bacon, potato, peppers, and mushroom was too much to resist.
Venetsa Cave
As I mentioned earlier, one perk of taking a tour to Belogradchik was that it included a side visit.
Bulgaria is home to a lot of caves that can be visited. In the past, I visited Bacho Kiro Cave, which is also interesting to explore. I’ve yet to go to Devetà shka Cave, the country’s most famous cave, but I haven’t given up on seeing it yet.
The local cave we went to see was Venetsa Cave. Arriving at the cave entrance in the middle of the countryside, it’s hard to believe there’s anything there to see. But head underground and things start to get interesting.
Like many caves you can visit, the experience involves following a metal walkway and staircases to access several chambers. Expect a few tight squeezes early on, but I coped ok here with my claustrophobia, so hopefully you will too.
There are five main halls you visit at Venetsa Cave, and while you will see stalagmites and stalactites, I didn’t think of them as the main attraction. Flowstones, the rocks that look like frozen waterfalls, are everywhere here and they look amazing when illuminated in different-coloured light.
The other neat rock formation here is helictites. These are crystal formations that grow in erratic ways, and here, they have a brown/milky-white appearance. Together with the rest of the formations, it made for a worthwhile bonus to the Belogradchik tour.
Have you heard of or seen photos of Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress before? Would you visit on a day trip or stay overnight? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
