Mishkova niva

Worth a detour

A Thracian cult complex in the hills south-west of Malko Tarnovo, with a domed temple inside a burial mound and a marble rotunda about twenty-five metres in outer diameter built of three courses of local white marble. It is listed as a monument of national significance and looks like nothing of the kind: unfenced, neglected, and with much of its stone carried off to build the town.

Story

Background

Karel Škorpil documented the site in 1926 and the first major excavation was in 1981. The on-site board dates the cult complex broadly, from the fifth to third centuries BC through to the Roman imperial period of the second and third centuries AD, with the rotunda itself probably Roman. Three courses of the marble ring survive to about a metre eighty. Europa Nostra listed it among the seven most endangered heritage sites in Europe in 2014, which tells you the condition.

Getting there is the problem, and it has two parts. The site lies inside the border zone, so you must present yourself in person with an identity document at the border police station in Malko Tarnovo and register before going. And the state register says access is with a guide from the tourist information centre in the town, which also sets a per-person tariff for guided visits to archaeological sites.

The road is asphalt and passable in an ordinary car — head from the town towards the Turkish border for a kilometre or two, turn left at a signpost, then about three kilometres. Official sources put the distance from town at three, four and five kilometres and cannot agree. On arrival there is no entry fee, no fence and nobody to explain anything, which after all the formalities is a peculiar experience. The winter season is listed as closed.