BATAK

The town

Wikipedia says: Batak is a town in Southern Bulgaria, in the Rhodope_Mountains.  The distance to the capital Sofia is 87 miles, and to Plovdiv - the second-largest sity in Bulgaria only 37 miles. Batak is situated in the northwestern slopes of  the Rhodope mountains, at 1036 m above sea level. It is surrounded by many peaks, clad with century-old pine and spruce forests. There are five big dams on the territory of the municipality-  Batak Dam, Golyam_Beglik, Shiroka_Polyana, Beglik and Toshkov Chark. The climate is temperate continental with a characteristic southern warm wind.

Batak dam is the third largest in Bulgaria. It is really near to the town- just over the hill, less than a mile. The dam is very popular. The resorts Tsigov Chark , Dunoto, St. Konstantin offer a lot of facilities for tourists. The infrastructure is really very good and a lot of interesting places are easy to reach. Batak is very popular dam for fishing. Besides the classical summer fishing, the dam is also the best place in Bulgaria for winter fishing. When the surface gets frozen hundreds of fishermen might be seen there, squatting on the ice and checking their luck. For skiers there is a ski run on the slope next to the dam and 4 miles from the town.

The town is well known as a historical place. Every Bulgarian knows the April_Uprising in 1876. The town was totally burned down and most of the citizen were killed in the "Batak Massacre".  Nowadays Batak is a temporary town. A lot of tourists come here to see historical places related to the Bulgarian fight for independence.

There are a lot of possibilities for riding. Slopes around the town are not so steep, there are a lot of black roads and paths. Distance to the dam is just a mile, and 3 - 5 miles to the resorts.

 The house

The man who built the house in the beginning or 20^th century was a horseman. He made a reliable house with a big barn and penthouse, which formed a compact estate. The house is fully furnished, authentic and very interesting. For more pictures click here.