TRAVEL

Traditions, both ancient and new, define nations and communities. Bulgarians make no exception. A country of diverse cultures and religions, its calendar is peppered with events, festivals and rites that range from cute to curious, even bizarre. Some of them are ancient, like the dances of the kukeri and nestinari, while others are new, such as greeting the first rays of the rising sun on 1 July. Almost all are heavily affected by globalisation and social media, yet keep a strong core of authenticity. 

Calm is the last word to describe the Bulgarian Black Sea coast with in summer. Then, the resorts and beaches teem with tourists and suffer from noise and litter. The feeling that you have stumbled into some sort of a din is inevitable.

А mass of high peaks, meandering rivers and gentle slopes, the Rhodope mountain range makes one seventh of Bulgaria's territory and is a universe with its own character, history and charm. People have lived in it for millennia, making the most of its rivers, meadows, low mountain fields, thick forests, ores and routes along meandering rivers. The mountain is defined by a rich mixture of impressive natural phenomena, ancient traditions and legends, mesmerising music and stunning examples of human craft and ingenuity, created by Thracians, Romans, Bulgarians, Turks and Pomaks.

About 2,000 years ago, the Romans invented an ingenious way to deal with the frequent change of emperors and the costly replacement of statues of the incumbent ruler that stood all over the place. Instead of making new monuments from head to toe, they would replace only the heads.

When you travel around Bulgaria in search of ancient Roman heritage, going deep into the region known as Ludogorie, or Deliorman (which translates as Mad Forest), may seem counterintuitive. The region, in the northeast, is known mainly for its rolling hills, industrial agriculture and generally drab towns.

Yet, near one of the larger cities, Razgrad, lie the remains of an ancient town that witnessed one of the most devastating events in Roman history.

With its rolling hills and uninspiring towns, the central part of northern Bulgaria appears unexciting and dull, a place you pass through on your way to somewhere else. However, as so often happens in Bulgaria, appearances are deceiving. Detour from the Sofia-Varna highway when you see the signs to Lovech and in the plateau that starts east from town you will find an unknown world of windswept hills, fertile farmland, sleepy villages and impressive natural phenomena. Welcome to the world of Devetaki Plateau.

Prehistoric goddesses dancing in dark caves. Thick forests climbing up forbidding mountains, moist from the breath of hidden waterfalls. Intriguing museums where ancient gold treasures share space with... a nuclear power plant model. Red rocks frozen in phantasmagorical shapes, with macabre stories to add. Winding rivers passing by abandoned Communist-era monuments and factories, and picturesque monasteries. Towns that have seen better times, but still strive to reinvent themselves. Roman ruins amid drab modern houses.

Under Communism, there was hardly a place in Bulgaria without a monument to Lenin, or at least a street, a school, or a kindergarten named after him. Sofia, the capital, had a tall statue of him in front of the Largo, where the main institutions of the People's Republic of Bulgaria were situated.

Аbout 15 years ago a spec of land off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast made it into the international news: archaeologists digging in the remains of a 5th century church on St Ivan Isle declared to have found authentic relics of... St John the Baptist.

Visiting monasteries in Bulgaria is one of this country's greatest delights. It is hard not to fall for their splendid scenery, beautiful old churches, naivist murals of saints and devils, smell of old wood, supposedly healing icons and sacred springs, atmosphere of bygone times and stories of medieval monks and Revival Period revolutionaries. The Rila and the Bachkovo monasteries are, understandably, inevitable, but once you have checked them out, there are scores of other places worth exploring. Here is a brief list.