Urvich 2025

As planned, this week we travelled to Kokalyane again, but this time we hiked across the road, in the Lozen mountain, around the Urvich fortress.

The day was sunny and even pleasantly warm (6-7 C). Because the gorge of the river Iskar there lies in the shadows of the two mountains, the river was still frozen and the ground was still partly covered with snow.

The path at the beginning of the trail was cleared of debris and fallen trees and easy to walk. I believe this is the path that most visitors to Urvich know and walk and I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people do not even suspect the existence of other walkable paths around.

After the detour for the monastery, the path seems abandoned, with lots of fallen trees, blocking it and requiring going around. To be honest, it had a very Blair witch vibe today and gave me a bit of the creeps.

Hike info:

Destination: Urvich

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 6 km

Elevation gain: 90 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 2 h 30 min

Average difficulty: 2.5 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, Burda hoodie, hat, (scarf in the backpack)

I:  socks, lingerie, Grasser sweater, Central Park hoodie, CC copycat hat, gloves, (scarf in the backpack)

I was just commenting with husband, that there were still no spring flowers on Kokalyane and Urvich and we came upon these snowdrops and hellebores :)

After doing the full circle around the hill and returning back to the river we followed the hidden path along the rocks to the Urvich fortress. We found this path last time we were here and it is probably the most exciting part of the hike.

The excavations of the fortress were closed and covered for the winter season, but the works have gained some progress over the past three years since we were here.

The grounds of the Urvich fortress are now like a museum in the open, with a number of information boards, elucidating the history of the place and the unearthed artifacts. This was definitely the most interesting and informative part of the hike.

After visiting the excavation works we went down and then up the opposite hill to the functioning monastery, where we had our lunch on one of the sunny benches. It was a short but nice hike and I am so glad we chose Urvich for our visit today.