Valley of the Thracian Kings (Shipka ~ Bulgaria)

October 2019

From Veliko Tarnovo we headed for the small (and I do mean small) village of Shipka. The road from Veliko Tarnovo to Shipka takes you over the Shipka Pass at which the Freedom Monument sits. This was built as a memorial to the 7,000+ Russian soldiers and Bulgarian volunteers who died in 1877 repelling numerous attacks by about 27,000 Turkish Soldiers.

The eternal flame was sadly out when we visited.

From this monument you have views across the valley and along the ridge line. Visible in the distance is the "Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party" which looks like a giant grounded UFO. It was actually an Assembly Hall built by the communist party in the late 70's to commerate a group of socialists who assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement that led to the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. Nowadays it's a crumbling shell but makes for a great photo op.



And here's what it looked like 40 odd years ago.

Shipka is small but it does lie in what is known as the Valley of the Thracian Kings as the valley is littered with about a thousand Thracian tombs (as evident by the small grass covered hillocks all over the valley floor.

About a hundred have been investigated. On the outskirts of Shipka three of the investigated tombs are open to the public. They are the Griffins Tomb, Helvitua Tomb and the impressive Shushmanetz Tomb all are about 2,500 years old.

The Griffins Tomb

 The Helvitua Tomb

The Shushmanetz Tomb

Quite a cool information centre with photoes of artifacts retrieved thatare now stored in the Archeological Museum in Sophia (which is now on our must see list).

It is also home to an impressive Russian Style Church which was also built to commerate the Russian Soldiers and Bulgarian who died holding off the Turks. However though think the inscriptions relating to the everlasting friendship between Bulgaria and Russia might need to be updated.

One of the nice things about staying in small villages like Shipka is that you tend to end up staying in a family run guest house where breakfast etc is made freshly in the traditional way. This was the case here where we got Banitsa for brekkie.  Banitsa is essentially  white cheese and egg mixture wrapped in filo pastry, baked and served warm with a large dollop of yoghurt. 

Heading out of Shipka we had an hour so to kill in the next door village (Kazanak) whilst waiting for a connecting bus so I had a look at the Kazanak Tomb. Unfortunately given the age and small size of the tomb and the fact that the wall frescoes are in such good nick after 2,500 years the general public aren't allowed inside it. So what they have done is built an exact replica - right down to water stains and cracks next door. Still v cool even though it was a replica.

Kazanak Tomb