The small town of Shipka, situated in the Balkan Mountains in the middle of Bulgaria, is home to some interesting attractions. For starters, it has some ancient Thracian tombs, which I sadly didn't get round to visiting because of time constraints, but which you should definitely put on your list of things to do. Secondly, it has the spectacular flying-saucer-like Buzludzha monument, which I've touched on in a different post.
And thirdly, there's the Shipka Monument to Freedom, erected on the summit of Stoletov Peak (1326m) in memory of the battles that were fought in Shipka Pass during Bulgaria's Independence War. Linking these monuments is some lovely mountain scenery that is worth exploring on foot. Which is exactly what my travel partner Kris and I ended up doing, one beautiful afternoon in late summer.
We drove to the Balkan Mountains from Bansko in the morning, making a brief stopover in the town of Shipka before making our way to our hotel on nearby Buzludzha Peak.
Shipka: A big name in Bulgarian history
Although Shipka is no more than a village in terms of size and population, it is a big name in Bulgarian history. It is here that four crucial battles in the Bulgarian Independence War (1877-1878) were fought. Like much of the Balkans, Bulgaria was occupied by the Ottomans for nearly five centuries. In the late 1870s, the Russians took it upon themselves to liberate the Balkans from the Turks. In 1877, a force of 2,500 Russian soldiers and 5,000 Bulgarian volunteers fought a much larger Ottoman force at Shipka, defeated it against incredible odds and so managed to take control of Shipka Pass, which was crucial in keeping the Russian army’s supply lines intact. As a result, the Russians succeeded in liberating Bulgaria and other Balkan countries from Ottoman rule, thus helping these countries regain their independence. Needless to say, the four battles of 1877 are commemorated in Shipka in grand style.
Shipka Memorial Church
For one thing, there's the church in Shipka where the bones of the thousands of Russian soldiers who died to liberate Bulgaria from the Ottomans are held. Note the Russian crosses on the spires.
The Shipka Memorial Church, which is a little reminiscent of an overdecorated red marzipan cake (albeit a charming one), was built between 1885 and 1902. It looks remarkably cheerful for a building dedicated to thousands of dead people. It was designed by Russian architects, and the funds for its construction were raised in Russia, as well, mostly by the families of the slain soldiers.
I didn't take any photos of the interior of the church, but it, too, is very colourful, although the crypts holding the bones of the soldiers who gave their lives to fight the Turks are understandably more sober.
Another reminder of the great battle can be found on the summit of Stoletov Peak (the mountain overlooking the village of Shipka), which Kris and I reached by means of a long but scenic walk from Buzludzha, but which can also be reached by car if you're lazy or strapped for time. This peak is a popular pilgrimage site for Bulgarians, and home to a ceremony held each year on the 3rd of March, Bulgaria's Liberation Day.
Walking from Buzludzha to Shipka
It so happened that we were in the mood for some hiking after our three-hour drive, so after a filling lunch at our hotel on Buzludzha Peak, we decided to walk to the Buzludzha Monument. This is a 2.5km walk if you follow the official trail, but shorter if you take a shortcut through the forest, which is what we ended up doing (I don't recommend doing this without a GPS route). After spending some time at the Buzludzha Monument (see this post), we decided to go for it and make our way to the Shipka Monument to Freedom (which we could see in the distance) on foot, a 13km walk that crosses several hills (four, I think), as well as some lovely patches of beech forest. We reckoned we would just be able to make it to Shipka before dark, and that we would be able to get a taxi back to our hotel from there. As it happened, we were right about one of these things, but not the other.
The trail was initially very clear. It started at the Buzludzha monument and was easy to follow, with some lovely views of the rolling hills.
The trail passed through several patches of forest, which were almost fairy-tale-like in the late-afternoon light.
The light was hard to capture (yes, I know, this photo is overexposed...), but take my word for it -- it was very beautiful.
About halfway through the walk, the path forked into three separate trails. We used the Komoot route-planning app to decide which trail we wanted: a short but fairly steep walk; a longer, slightly less steep walk, or a flattish one that didn’t look too scenic. We picked the longer, not-too-strenuous trail, which was very doable. It was interesting to see the change of vegetation between the earlier, steeper part of the walk and the flatter second half. Both the trees and the plants looked completely different here. The views of the hills more or less disappeared along this trail, though, so if you're fit and feeling energetic, I'd suggest taking the shorter and steeper trail. I suspect that one has more spectacular views.
Anyhow, the sun was well and truly setting by the time we reached the Monument to Freedom on Stoletov Peak. This monument is a 32m-high tower that contains the bones of some of the many Russians and Bulgarians slain in the battles fought here, as well as a small museum. Sadly, the museum was closed when we got there (it closes at 7pm in summer) and moreover the building was partly covered in scaffolding when we visited, so I didn’t bother to take any photos of it.
Yes, I know. I'm a bad blogger. Baaaaaad.
I did take a few shots of the cannons scattered across the summit, though!
The hills around Shipka are glorious during the golden hour. I highly recommend coming here in the early evening for nice photos (although you will probably find the monument itself closed at that hour, as we did).
I absolutely loved this view...
The thousands of Russian soldiers who fell in the battle of Shipka are commemorated on the edge of the summit with a Russian cross overlooking the town.
After exploring the sights on the summit, we descended back to Shipka, while the sun was setting behind us. This part of the walk took a bit longer than I expected, and we were lucky to chance upon a taxi as we were crossing the road about two-thirds down the hill, as we probably would have had to do a fair bit of walking in the dark if we hadn’t. Starting this walk after a late lunch probably wasn’t the best idea. Then again, we would have missed out on the golden hour if we hadn’t, so there is that...
Once we got back to our hotel, we had a late and rather lovely dinner, thus capping off a great day in proper style.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Planning your walk
The walk between Buzludzha and the Shipka Monument can be done both ways. It's probably easiest the way we did it, i.e., starting from Buzludzha, as Stoletov Peak (the hill just outside Shipka on which the Shipka Monument sits) is fairly steep. I'd say the best way to go about it is to find yourself a hotel in Shipka proper, rather than on Buzludzha Peak as we did. This will allow you to take a taxi to Buzludzha, do the long walk to the Shipka Monument and then have a relatively easy walk back to your hotel afterwards. That said, I do highly recommend our hotel on Buzludzha Peak. If you don't mind a steep start to your walk, you could start in Shipka and end on Buzludzha Peak. You could even bypass the steep ascent of Stoletov Peak by asking a taxi driver in Shipka to drop you off at the Shipka Monument, which is easily accessible by car. The rest is of the walk is fairly easy from there.
Difficulty level
Apart from a few short steep sections on Stoletov Peak, this walk isn’t hard, but it does require decent fitness, as you’ll be climbing several hills. Sturdy footwear is advisable as the trail is muddy and gravelly in certain places. I recommend downloading the GPS route beforehand, as signposts are missing in some places and what signposts can be found aren't always very helpful (even if you can read Cyrillic). We used the Komoot route planner, which definitely came in handy in a few places.
Costs
The taxi from somewhere on Stoletov Peak to our hotel cost us 20 leva, which initially struck us as a bit of rip-off, but was actually quite reasonable, given that we had to drive all the way around Mt Buzludzha -- a considerable distance. If you catch a taxi from Shipka proper, it should be considerably cheaper.
Final tip
Enjoy your walk! And take some time to check out those ancient tombs, too. I’m kind of miffed I didn't get round to doing so. A few hours should suffice...