PROGRAMME OF THE TOUR

Day 1, 7 June
09:00 Departure from Sofia
10:00 Visit of Petrohan cascade
11:00 Visit of Klisurski Monastery and lunch
13:00 Visit of Srechenska bara dam
14:00 Visit of Ogosta dam
15:00 Arrival in the town of Montana, accommodation in the hotel and free time
20:00 Dinner in the town
Overnight

Day 2, 8 June
09:00 Departure for the towm of BelogradchikBreakfast
10:30 Visit of the town and the famous rocks
12:30 Lunch
14:30 Visit of the Magura cave
17:00 Arrival in Montana
20:00 Dinner
Overnight

Day 3, 9 June
09:00 Departure from Montana
10:00 Trip trough the Iskar gorge
10:30 Visit of the Middle Iskar cascade
Lunch en-route
17:00 Arrival in Sofia

Petrohan is a pass in the magnificent Balkan Mountains Range. From here Petrohan hydropower cascade with upper reservoir of Petrohan hydro plant starts. Recently, it was tightened with geomembrane.

Klisurski Monastery of Saints Ciril and Methodius is an operating male monastery. Founded in 12th or 13th century it was through the centuries and still is the “spiritual pearl” of Northwestern Bulgaria. It was completely destroyed several times but each time resurrected from the ashes even more beautiful. In 2000 so-called “life-giving water”, i.e. curing mineral water was detected in the monastery’s wall.

From very ancient times the city of Montana was a famous stop on the shortest road between Western Europe and Near East. There was settled population here 6000 years BC. In the 1st millennium BC the first fortresses appeared; paintings of most respected Thracian gods – Heros, Benedita, Zagrei, Sbelsrud have been found there. In 1st century BC the region was conquered by the Roman Empire, which brought here a horse army composed of Germanic Sugambri people.

Srechenska bara dam is nonuniform earthfill dam, 51 m high, built in 1985.

Ogosta dam, 60 m high, is constructed on Ogosta River in 1986. This is the third largest reservoir in the country. Its storage is 450.106.m³. It is built in karst region that caused serious problems and complicated cross section. The spillway has an interesting structure.

Belogradchik
“Neither famous valleys of Provence, nor the Gorge of Pincarbo in Spain, nor the Alps, nor the Pyrenees, nor the most wonderful mountains of Tyrol and Switzerland have something, which could be compared to what I have seen in Bulgaria, close to Belogradchik”, wrote Academician Jerome Blanqui in 1841. He probably meant the unique naturally formed figures of reddish Belogradchik rocks (area 90 km², height over 100 m), which once were on the bottom of a big sea.

Magura Cave
Among beautiful figure the nature has formed, one can see 12 000-years old human paintings, remains of dwellings, fireplaces, ovens. Nowadays, except of being an attractive tourist place the cave is a wine making site too.

The cascade “Middle Iskar” on the river Iskar through the beautiful Balkan mountain is foreseen with 9 small hydro plants with 25 MW altogether. It is a joint project of the municipality Svogue with Petrolvilla Ltd. To preserve the beautiful natural scenery, the dams are with heights less than 10 m. The construction of the first plant Lakatnik with dam height 8,75 m and capacity 2,62 MW is almost finished. The second plant already in construction is with dam height 10 m and capacity 3 MW.