Tourist treasures of Elena Balkan

published on 6/28/13 8:13 AM

One can discover beautiful spots for recreation amidst the verdure of the Elena section of the Balkan Range.

Photo: Veneta Nikolova

The Balkan Range is full of surprises. One can discover really amazing places, just following the fantasy and will to escape city chaos. The area of the town of Elena is such a place, as the settlement itself is a true piece of jewelry with its Renaissance architecture. There are beech and oak forests all over that hide unexpected tourist treasures.

The town of Elena welcomes its visitors with its beautiful churches and its well-preserved National Revival atmosphere.

Many discover their Eden here, in the Balkan Range, just a few hundred meters away from Elena. The town gained its outlook as early as the beginning of the 19th century, with the typical cobblestone streets, massive and modern for that age buildings and facilities, such as a complicated piping system and even street lights with oil lanterns. One can still feel nowadays the spirit of the old ages, when Elena used to be a prosperous trade center. The magnificent murals of the oldest church in Europe – St. Nicholas /Sv. Nikola/, dated end-15 century is a place worth visiting, along with the neighboring Assumption Church from 1837 – the largest Christian temple in North Bulgaria up to the 1878 Liberation. The so-called Daskalolivnica /or a place, where teachers where produced/ - the first Bulgarian institute for teachers, turned into a museum nowadays. The town has a tourist info center, as well as a few quite nice family hotels, built in a typical Renaissance style.

The so-called "daskalolivnitsa" (brewery for teachers) was the first class school in Bulgaria and is one of the town's landmarks.

Now it is time for the secrets of the Elena Balkan. It hides a series of small villages with strange names – Valkovtsi, Yakovtsi, Miikovtsi, Blaskovtsi and others. It turns out that those are all names of old aristocratic families. History takes us back to the 14th century. Many local boyars looked for shelter in those spots after the old Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo, situated nearby was conquered by the Ottomans. The refugees arrived with their families and belongings and named the villages after their last names. That is the reason why people nowadays praise with their aristocratic origin. Besides that those boyar descendants do carry the spirit of entrepreneurship and their rural tourism activities, meeting all European criteria kicked off years ago. One can see wonderful guest houses in many of those villages and neighborhoods. However, it is really hard to distinguish them, since they are no different than the other renaissance buildings around. Despite that they offer conveniences and even luxuries, as free Internet, cable TV, cell phone connection etc. are available even in the most remote and isolated places. Pools have become a recent common facility too, as well as the good cuisine that relies on meat mainly.

Most guest houses have swimming pools in their yards.

Deer ham is the specialty there, but one should bear in mind that we are not talking about deer meat, but about smoked pork with a bunch of odorous herbs. Mrs. Kristina Vasileva from the Tourist Info Center explains that the climate is important for the natural drying of the meat, since nothing but salt is added to the it.

The tourist information center in Elena organizes re-enactments of old local customs.

Now it is time for a walk. The beautifully decorated Kapinovski Monastery from the 13th century is one of the local landmarks. It also has a very nice hotel part. The Yovkovtsi dam is a paradise for people who love fishing and water sports. There are several eco paths with different length and difficulty that lead the tourist to beautiful waterfalls, deep abysses and virgin spots in the forest.

On the outside, family-type hotels do not differ from the typical Balkan mountain houses.

“There are spots with benches, tables, barbeques and others, where tourists bring their food, produced in the Elena Balkan – meat, deer ham, cheese and yellow cheese. We take tourists for herbs and mushrooms. They prepare their own food right here, on the spot and they all love it. There are rope trolleys over rocky areas and rivers that are a real challenge for the tourists. We have two horse riding centers too, a pottery workshop is organized for fans either.”

More and more citizens of the capital Sofia buy old houses here and turn them into villas, attracted by the beauty of the area. There are a few foreigners too, who feel wonderful among this beautiful nature.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev

По публикацията работи: Veneta Nikolova

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Tourist treasures of Elena Balkan

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