Belogradchik Fortress โ€” fortress
Yanko Malinov ยท CC BY-SA 4.0

Belogradchik Fortress

ะ‘ะตะปะพะณั€ะฐะดั‡ะธัˆะบะฐ ะบั€ะตะฟะพัั‚

  • 1 min read
  • 43.623ยฐ N 22.677ยฐ E

Interesting facts

  • Locals simply call the fortress Kaleto, from the Turkish word kale, meaning fortress.
  • The fortress's final major rebuilding took place between 1805 and 1837; its walls are pierced with embrasures for rifles and cannon.
  • The surrounding Belogradchik Rocks spread over some 50 square kilometres, and the tallest of them reach about 200 metres.
  • The rocks owe their rusty red colour to iron oxide that formed when the region had a hot, dry climate in the Jurassic.
  • The Belogradchik Rocks are the only place on Earth where the critically endangered plant Hieracium belogradcense grows.
  • Many of the rock pillars around the fortress have names and legends of their own, such as Adam and Eve, the Madonna and the Schoolgirl.
  • Together with nearby Magura Cave, the Belogradchik Rocks have been on Bulgaria's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage since 1984.
  • The rocks were declared a natural monument in 1949, and in 2009 they were Bulgaria's nominee in the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign.

Why it is worth it

Belogradchik Fortress is one of those places where nature did half the engineering. On the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains, the Romans used the famous Belogradchik Rocks โ€” natural stone pillars up to 70 metres high โ€” as ready-made walls, building masonry only on the northwest and southeast sides where the rock left gaps. The result is a stronghold that seems to grow out of a stone forest, and it is among the best preserved in Bulgaria.

At first it was mainly a lookout post. In the 14th century Tsar Ivan Sratsimir of Vidin enlarged it, and under him it became the second most important fortress of his realm after Baba Vida in Vidin itself. The Ottomans took it in 1396 and kept strengthening it against local rebels; the most thorough rebuilding came in the early 19th century, when French and Italian engineers added European features to an Ottoman plan. The fortress played a grim role in suppressing the Belogradchik Uprising of 1850 and saw its last fighting during the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885.

Today visitors pass through three separate courtyards linked by gates, with walls more than two metres thick at the base and up to 12 metres high, covering about 10,000 square metres in all. The site is managed by the local history museum and is one of the country's "100 National Tourist Sites".

Getting there

The fortress is right next to the small town of Belogradchik; the city of Vidin is about 44 km away. The nearest airport is Niลก (INI) in Serbia, around 74 km away; within Bulgaria the closest is Sofia (SOF), about 119 km away.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Bulgaria 16The Most Impressive Forts 33The Most Impressive Fortresses 51The Most Beautiful Castles, Palaces and Fortresses 302

From the encyclopaedia

The Belogradchik Fortress, also known as Kaleto, is an ancient fortress located on the north slopes of the Balkan Mountains, close to the northwestern Bulgarian town of Belogradchik and is the town's primary cultural and historical tourist attraction, drawing, together with the Belogradchik Rocks, the main flow of tourists into the region. It is one of the best-preserved strongholds in Bulgaria and a cultural monument of national importance.

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