Velingrad

Velingrad was formed in 1948 by joining three villages and it markets itself as the spa capital of the Balkans, which rests on the number of springs: around eighty of them across the town at temperatures from cool to over ninety degrees and with different mineral compositions, feeding a large number of hotels, bath houses and public taps. The Kleptuza is the centrepiece, a large karst spring emerging in the middle of the town at a substantial rate and filling two lakes used for boating. It sits at about seven hundred and fifty metres in the western Rhodopes with forest around, and the narrow-gauge railway from Septemvri to Dobrinishte stops here, which is one of the better ways to arrive.

History

Thracian tribes lived in the Chepino valley in the 6th-5th centuries BC, leaving many tombs and the ruins of settlements and forts, and after the Romans took the Rhodopes in 45 BC the region shows Roman clay pipes for mineral water, roads and forts. Slavs settled here in the 6th century, the region joined the First Bulgarian Empire under Malamir, coins of Tsar Ivan Alexander have been found, and the fortress of Tsepina and the valley fell to the Ottomans in 1371-1373 (Wikipedia, Velingrad).

What you'll find

• Around eighty mineral springs - the density the town trades on.
• The Kleptuza karst spring - a large flow emerging in the town centre.
• Two lakes with boats - the water the spring fills.
• The narrow-gauge railway - the line from Septemvri stopping here.

When to go

April to October for the surroundings; the spas work year round and winter is a busy season. A day, or longer for treatment. Bulgarian holidays fill the hotels.

Before you go

It is a spa resort with heavy hotel development and little historic character. Quality of facilities varies widely. It is busy with domestic visitors year round. The town sprawls and walking between parts of it takes time.

Nearby

The narrow-gauge line runs south to Bansko; Batak lies east.