Leisure - Workshop Balkanfolk 2008
18 July - 31 July 2008, Varshets - Bulgaria

Besides the educational courses, the practical seminar for Balkan folklore Balkanfolk 2008 has in its programme 2 travel days.
On 22 July 2008 – excursion to the town of Vratsa and the Ledenika cave.
On 27 July 2008 the participants will visit the Klissura monastery “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”, the town of Belogradchik and the Magurata cave.

Balkanfolk’s orchestra and singers will keep up the good humour during the evenings at the restaurant of “Promishleno stroitelstvo” hotel. The participants in the seminar will have the chance to perform music, dances and songs they’ve learnt at Balkanfolk 2008.

The town of Vratsa is situated in the outskirts of the Vratsa mountains, at 370 m over the sea level. The town and its environment offer one of the most gorgeous views of Bulgaria. Vratsa is a point of departure for the Vratsata gorge and the Ledenika cave. The defile of the Leva river, to the south of Vratsa, is a beautiful rocky mountain, there had been a fortress once, now it is an attractive place for alpinism.
Since the days of the Bulgarian Renaissance Vratsa has been a famous for its good wines, which had won a lot of awards at international fairs. By the end of the 50ies of the 20th century Vratsa had been a trade centre but then turned into an industrial city, the centre of the industry in the region. This became the main field of the town’s economics and determined the trends of development of the region.
In the Northern part of the mountain there are many rest houses and hotels. The first rest house to be built was “Aleko”, situated in the tourist centre “Aleko”. Soon after that, the other rest houses were built – “Selimitsa”, “Kumata”, “Fonfon”, Tintiava”, “Edelvais”, “Momina skala” etc.
There are six ski runs in the park with lengths of about 13.6 km and seven poma lifts. The mountain also has many rest areas.

The Ledenika Cave in Stara Planina has got numerous passages and karst forms – stalactites and stalagmites at thousands of years. The cave is 300 metres long and has got ten halls. The first hall is the Antechamber; this is the lowest part of the cave. The hall offers lovely ice ornaments in winter and spring. The biggest hall is the Concert hall. It is 60 x 45 metres and it is 23 high. On 2 June 1963 Vratsa philharmonic orchestra held a gala underground concert, which gave the name of the hall. This is how they call it today. On different occasions the Philharmonic orchestra plays sometimes. Unfortunately, despite the wonderful acoustic, the bad meteorological conditions are the reason for the short duration of the concerts – the instruments of the musicians wouldn’t play. Next is the Sinners’ passage. Depending on the number of the sins some pass easily some find it difficult, and if you can’t pass t all they say you have got many sins. It is somewhat natural that the following hall is called the White hall. The name comes from the two enormous snow white stalagmites in there. The biggest stalagmite of the Ledenika cave is here – Mother-in-law’s tongue, 4.50 metres high. The Giant’s wife, the Elephant, the Bathing girl can be seen here.
Once the cave was full of water, which vapoured gradually and only one little lake remained – the Wishes Lake. The legend says that if you make a wish and you dip your hand into the water, it will become true.
The temperature inside the cave is from minus 7°С to minus 15°С and the humidity is 92%. The fauna is relatively poor: bats, cave bugs, spiders. This is the only pace where the insects called Ledenikus and Svetlomrazets live. Lichens and pubescences are not widely diffused. .

The Klisura Monastery of “St. St.Cyril and Methodius” is situated at the foot of Todorini kukli peak not far away from the spa resort of Varshets. It is located 500 m. above the sea level, in the picturesque mountain valley of Vreshtitsa river, Rovna livada and Bakite. It attracts with the marvelous nature around it and with its interesting history.
The monastery is called the spiritual pearl of Northwestern Bulgaria.
The Klisura Monastery was founded during the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, in 1240. It was destroyed and restored several times during the Ottoman rule and was a center of literature and education. In 1862 it was burned down by the Berkovitsa Turkish ruler pasha Jusuf bei and the monks were killed. In 1869 the monastery was restored by its first founder Ilia Stojanov and archimandrite Antim Damianov. A completely new monastery complex was built. In 1891 the cloister was officially sanctified by the Vidin bishop. In 1937 it was painted by the well-known Bulgarian painters Gospodin Jeliazkov and professor George Bogdanov. The iconostasis is a masterpiece of Staicho Fandakov. The icons date back to 18 – 19 th century. Some of them are painted by anonymous masters and others – by the icon painter Nikola Obrazopisov. A few years ago a new little chapes was built called “St. Nicolas”. Along with the two churches the monastery complex includes 3 big residential buildings, a big, a small farm, a cook-house, all around a well-maintained garden. In 2000 the so-called “live water” was found in the holy spring, coming from Todorini kukli peak. This is spring water that contains few minerals and it is said that it cures .

Belogradchik is the municipality of a region (411 square km), situated in North-western Bulgaria. Today, the population of the town is about 5,000 people. The region includes parts of the Western Front Balkan Range, the western part of Stara Planina, the most south part of the Western Danube plain, the two mountain massifs Venetsa and Vedrenik, surrounded by the wonder world of the Belogradchik rocks. These rocks are marvelous stone sculptures moulded 200 mln years ago. The red colour of the sandstones that once lied down at the sea floor attracts. The fantastic lines of people, animals and castles would carry you away to a fairy world. Wherever you stay it’s only rocks you see and depending on the very moment and on the fantasy you can find out more and more new figures.


 The Magurata Cave

The Magurata Cave is situated in northwestern Bulgaria, 180 km away from Sofia, 17 km away from Belogradchik , 1.5 km from Rabisha village and 35 km southwest of the town of Vidin. The cave was hollowed in the whitewash rocks of the Rabish hills (461 metres above sea level). Magurata is one of the biggest caves in Bulgaria – total length of the passages that have been discovered by now is 2,500 metres. It consists of a main passage directed to northwest, which leads to three deviations. The halls are enormous – over 200 metres long, over 50 metres wide and more than 20 metres high. There are fantastic formations in the cave that are amazingly big. Magurata is famous for the drawings on the walls, made by manure during different periods. They represent dancing people, hunting men, animals, suns, plants… The climate characteristics of the Rabish hills are similar to these of Champagne, France, and the cave offers excellent conditions for wine maturing .