Bachkovo and the Rhodopes: the slow breath of hidden Bulgaria

There are mountain ranges you cross in half a day, and others that invite you to lose yourself. The Rhodopes, in southern Bulgaria, belong to the second kind. They unfold in a soft succession of wooded ridges and gorges carved by rivers, where stone villages seem to have paused in an earlier age. Here mass tourism, which fills the Black Sea beaches to the east, simply never arrives. The roads climb slowly, the Cyrillic signs grow sparse, and the dominant sound remains that of water and of wind through the beech trees.

The monastery of Bachkovo, founded almost a thousand years ago, is the spiritual heart of the valley. The second most important in Bulgaria, it preserves paved courtyards, frescoes blackened by time and an atmosphere of contemplation that no crowd disturbs. You visit it in silence, perhaps as the monks cross the cloister, and then step out to buy honey, cheese or mountain herbs from the stalls along the path. It is a place of living faith, not of postcards.

All around, the Rhodopes open themselves to walking. Marked trails lead to waterfalls, covered wooden bridges and clearings where the flocks graze. The region is famous for its musical traditions, its hand-woven rugs and a simple cuisine of yoghurt, banitsa and vegetables from the garden. Distances seem to stretch out, and time along with them.

To avoid even the few summer visitors, it is best to come in spring or in the depths of autumn, when the woods catch fire and the air is clear. It is easily reached from Plovdiv, less than an hour away, but the advice is to stay a few nights in a village guesthouse. The Rhodopes are not to be visited: they are to be lived, if only for a weekend.

Getting there

The main gateway city is Plovdiv, whose airport is the closest, with Bachkovo a short distance to the south along the valley of the Chepelarska river. By car you follow the road to Asenovgrad and continue on into the Rhodopes; without your own vehicle, the buses that climb from Plovdiv towards Smolyan stop at the monastery, and also pass through nearby Asenovgrad, closer still.