Between a Rock and a Hard Place Vidin, Bulgaria

May 27, 2024

Welcome to Bulgaria, where yes means no and no means yes, direct eye contact is everything and the people are formal but very friendly.

We spent our morning exploring the Belogradchik Fortress, located on the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains, and its famous rocks.

The fortress was built during the Roman Empire, and it was built to last. Its foundation has walls that are 6′ thick, and 39′ high, but thanks to some naturally occurring rock formations it came with two ready-made walls.

Formed from sandstone and sediment, the Belogradchik Rock formation is a collection of interestingly shaped rock columns whose formation began approximately 230 million years ago when the tectonic cycle was creating the Balkan Mountains and elevating this region of Bulgaria. The rocks span a distance of about 19 square miles, with some formations reaching a height of 650′ or more. The formations where the fortress was built were large enough and close enough together to negate the need for walls on two sides of the fortress, so walls only had to be built on the northeast and southwest sides.

Ken climbed the stairs in the first picture below to get a better look, only to discover there were more stairs to climb. When he got to the end of those stairs, there were still more. And when he finally did reach the top, he had to navigate some pretty steep crevices to get from Point A to Point B. And, no, that’s not Pam in the picture. 😊,

But when he saw the views he thought it was totally worth it.

Meanwhile, Pam kept her feet on the ground, exploring trails and checking out the view from some of the lower lookout points. Soldiers guarding the fortress could see folks coming from a long way away, and there were plenty of secret passages for them to scurry to for a quick getaway or sneak defense.

The fortress was originally built for surveillance and defense, and according to information Pam read it later became an important stronghold, but there was no explanation of why or for whom. Wikipedia says the last time the fortress saw battle was 1885.

You now know everything we know about the Belogradchik Fortress and Rocks!