Momchilgrad Bulgaria - Travel Guide, Tours, Hotels and Photos - Pictures of Bulgaria

The town of Momchilgrad lies 15km to the south of Kurdzhali, in a valley of the Vurbitsa river. The town lies in the crossroads of the main road from the Bulgarian town of Smolyan to the Turkish town of Odrin and the one connecting Kurdzhali to Gyumurdzhina.

The small town is not a popular tourist destination for the lack of major tourist sights, but its neighbourhood, and particularly the village of Tatul (8km to the northeast of Momchilgrad), draws to visitors. About 200-300m. to the south of the village, archeologists have found an interesting fortress erected over a rocky mount. The fortress has man-made walls to the north and west, and is naturally protected by vertical rocks to the east and south. The fortress is thought to have been built during Thracian times and reconstructed during the Middle Ages. It was surrounded by a settlement during the Middle Ages, as inferred by remains of house foundations beneath the mount, glass decorations and ceramic vessels. Within the fortress, the only building that is partially preserved is a trapezium-shaped tower the ground-floor of which used to serve as a water reservoir.

The most interesting remain within the fortress is a Thracian sanctuary, dedicated to the famous Thracian singer, Orpheus, according to a renowned Bulgarian historian, Ivan Venediktov. The sanctuary, deemed to date back to the 12th century BC, represents a big rock where worshippers have dug two rocky cemeteries, 8 stairs, and a niche for laying a ritual plate.