Silkosiya Reserve

Worth a detour

Silkosiya was the first nature reserve declared in Bulgaria, in July 1931, and it protects three hundred and ninety hectares of mixed oak and oriental beech with the understorey that makes Strandzha strange: Pontic rhododendron and Caucasian whortleberry, evergreen shrubs left over from a warmer geological age and found almost nowhere else in Europe. Access is on the marked trail with an escort.

Story

Background

The date matters. Bulgaria protected this ground in July 1931 and formally declared it a reserve in June 1933 — two acts that are often quoted against each other. Either way it came long before the idea of strict protection was common in the Balkans. The order covers three hundred and eighty-nine point six hectares in Tsarevo municipality, between the villages of Kosti and Balgari. You will see 1933 and 396 hectares quoted widely, including on the park's own ageing website; the state register says 1931 and 389.6, and it is the primary source.

What is inside is the point. Strandzha's oak and beech forest carries a laurel-leaved evergreen understorey that belongs to the Tertiary, before the ice ages simplified European woodland. Pontic rhododendron flowers here in late spring in a way that looks entirely out of place in Bulgaria. The same relic flora is what got the whole mountain protected.

Bulgarian reserves are governed by the Protected Areas Act, which prohibits everything except guarding, science, passage along marked paths and a short list of emergencies. For Silkosiya the directorate states the practical form: tourist visits are allowed only along the marked path and only with an escort. That means arranging it, through the park directorate at Malko Tarnovo or the visitor centre, rather than turning up. The neighbouring reserves — Vitanovo, Sredoka and Tisovitsa — have their own arrangements, and Uzunbodzhak has none at all.