The largest city in the eastern part of the Rose Valley is Karlovo, with a population of 30,000. Like Kalofer, Karlovo was also established during the Ottoman period and was rebuilt in the 19th century. But unlike nearby Kalofer, its ancient center has been preserved [...]

Kalofer is a town of 3,500 people located near the highest part of the Balkan Mountain Range and Park, in the middle of the Rose Valley. Today it is a sleepy town, but at the end of the 19th century it had a population similar [...]

Not far from Veliko Tarnovo, at the beginning of the road leading to the Šhipka Pass—one of the most important mountain passes in the Balkans—is the Dryanovo Monastery. This beautiful monastery lies on the banks of a river, in one of the most stunning natural [...]

Veliko Tarnovo is an ancient city located on a naturally fortified hill in one of the bends of the Yantra River, north of the Balkan Mountains. It rose to prominence in the Middle Ages when it served as the capital of Bulgaria. From here came [...]

The Iskar River is the largest river that joins the Danube in Bulgaria. It is also the only river that crosses the Balkan Mountains; therefore, along it passed the historical road from the areas north of the empire (Romania and beyond) to the ports of [...]

The City of Nikopol is an hour's drive east of Oescus, and is one of the oldest and most important cities along the River. Human settlement in it began already in prehistoric times. In the Roman period, a village existed here and a dedicatory inscription [...]

If you continue with the Danube to the east, around 50 kilometers, you will reach the city of Svishtov, which is a regional center, an important port, and a crossing point (ferry) on the Danube to Romania. It is the southernmost city on the Danube [...]

From Svishtov, it is a little more than an hour's drive to Ruse. It is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria (150,000 people), after Plovdiv, Sofia, Burgas, and Varna, and is an important port on the Danube and a gateway to Romania. Ruse is only [...]

Rusenski Lom Park is an area of spectacular cliffs along the River Lom, which is a tributary of the Danube, not far from the city of Ruse. The area was a favorite of monks who practiced the Hesychasm tradition during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The [...]

Silistra is the northeastern most city on the Danube, part of the Dobruja region—an important historical city with about 40,000 people. In the past, there was a Roman city called Dorostrum, from which several monuments remain, especially an impressive Roman tomb from the 4th century [...]