Asen's Fortress

Worth a detour

Almost nothing of the fortress survives except its position, which is the point: a limestone spur over the Chepelarska gorge with the road south to the Aegean running underneath. The one building still standing is the church — two storeys of it, with a square tower and fragments of medieval painting. It is a short, steep walk up from the car park, and Bachkovo monastery is ten minutes further up the same valley.

Story

Background

The rock was fortified long before the Asens. An eleventh-century charter of Bachkovo monastery names a place called Petrich here, and the spur has the shape every military engineer wants — cliffs on three sides and a single approach. What made the fortress famous is an inscription of 1231, cut into the wall in eight lines, recording rebuilding under Ivan Asen II. It came a year after his victory at Klokotnitsa, at a moment when Bulgaria was the strongest power in the region and the Latin Empire in Constantinople was not.

The walls came down over the following centuries and what survives is the church, dedicated to the Holy Mother of God of Petrich. Scholars argue about its date, with most placing it in the twelfth or thirteenth century, and it is unusual for the region: a single nave over a lower level, a wide narthex and a square tower, more vertical than anything else nearby. Traces of medieval painting survive inside.

The practical shape of a visit is a short climb from the car park and then as long as you want on the rock. Late afternoon is the hour — the gorge fills with shadow while the church stays lit — and the combination with Bachkovo, ten minutes further south, is how most people do it.