In contrast to the citizens of most overpopulated European cities, the citizens of Sofia have a quick get-away from the thick smog covering the 2-million-strong capital Sofia to pristine nature. Undoubtedly the most popular and accessible get-away from the sickening fumes is Vitosha Mountain – only 10-km away from the city center. During weekends, however, the mountain is stuffed with tourists. People from all ages flock before the chair lifts situated on the northern slopes; block the roads to the hotels and huts with their cars; or hardly walk up and down the overcrowded paths. Indeed, there are other less known mountain routes around the city which are away from the crowds, congested traffic and accumulated stress.

Surrounded from all sides by smaller and larger mountains, Sofia is a good starting point for walking tours. By car, in less then an hour from the city center, you can reach a high mountain peak, a deep cave or the confines of an old monastery tucked in the foothills of steep rocky raises.

“Let me explain it in numbers”, says Momchil Tsvetanov from the tourist agency ‘Bureau Radetski’. “There are 37 mountains in Bulgaria. If you start from Sofia by car, in an hour you can reach 20 of them. This is a serious advantage in itself because not far from the capital city, you can find a wide variety of mountains – steep, low, green, rocky… There are mountains for all seasons.”

Sofia is surrounded by a host of larger and smaller monasteries.

South of Sofia, in the general direction of the town of Pernik, you can find the rolling hills of Golo Bardo cut through by unexplored caves. It hosts one of the oldest natural reserves in the country called Ostritsa. In it, you can find unique plant species from the Ice Age period on earth. It’s really worth visiting another mountain situated only 70 km away from Sofia. It is called Lyubash – its highest peak of the same name rising some 1398m above sea level. “From there the view over 1/5th of the country is unforgettably beautiful”, says Momchil. Another popular mountain to visit is Lozen – hosting a wide range of shady paths and places of rest. We highly recommend you to pay a visit to the Iskar Gorge to be found north of Sofia in which Iskar River cuts right through the Balkan Range. Another much less known and much less affected by mass tourism region is Kraishte – west of Sofia and near the Serbian border.

If you choose to spend your weekends in some mountains nearby Sofia you will enjoy a fresh air and great landscapes.

“Few people have heard about it and few people know that there are 11 mountains in Kraishte”, says Momchil Tsvetanov. “These are very wild, largely unknown mountains but their nature is absolutely pristine – no marked paths, roads or mountain huts but only dirt roads and deserted villages. One of the most interesting places in Kraishte is Zemlene Gorge comprising of sky-rising rock towers and wondrous rock formations.”

St. Petka monastery

Widely unknown by tourists is the region around the small town of Tran – northwest from Sofia. A few kilometers out of town is the Erma Gorge. There is an eco-path suitable mainly to experienced mountaineers. However, Lyulin Mountain, situated west from Sofia is accessible to anyone. There the air is clean and healing. The spa-resort Bankya is situated in the western foothills of Lyulin Mountain. If you drive up along a winding road above Bankya you’d get to the small monastery ‘St. Petka’ whose church was built over 300 years ago. To be sure, Sofia is surrounded by a host of larger and smaller monasteries tucked in the foothills of the mountains.

English version: Delian Zahariev