Devetashka Cave

This weekend we travelled to the other side of the country for a family celebration. I love adding sight seeing to such trips, so on our way we stopped to visit an interesting cave near the town of Lovech - the Devetashka Cave. It is a very big karst cave on the east bank of the river Osam and is a protected area, now the home to about 30 000 bats and other faunal species.

The cave was one of the filming locations of the Expendables 2 and the bridge to the cave, spanning now over the river Osam, is a present from the crew of the film.

The cave is famous for its enormous spectacular entrance with several large openings in the ceiling

A tributary to Osam runs through the cave

Because it is a protected area, only the large entrance hall is open for visiting, the actual passages of the cave are closed to the public and can only be visited for scientific and environmental purposes.

The cave has been occupied by humans for tens of thousands of years; the archeological findings of the site are now exhibited in the Museum of History in the town of Lovech.

The sheer enormity of the place is very impressive and even Alex, who is rarely enthusiastic about site seeing, was in awe.

The river Osam

Lovech

Going further backwards through our photos, I've reached the first stop of our journey - the town of Lovech. I hadn't been to Lovech before and was very curious to see the symbol of the town - the covered bridge over the Osam river, built in 1874 by Kolyo Ficheto.
We parked the car at the designated parking lot downtown and the first thing we saw climbing out of the car was - ha! - here's the bridge, right next to the parking lot, no need to search for it :)

We crossed the river along the new bridge, to have a better look at the covered bridge from the outside, and entered into the old town of Lovech - Varosha. Lovech is best known as the center of the revolutionary organization, built by Vassil Levski. We visited the museum of Vassil Levski and the church of the notorious priest Krustyo Nikiforov.

The wall of the church and the steps to the fortress:

The old town - Varosha, with its preserved Renaissance houses, built on the hill above the river:

The impressive monument of Vassil Levski on the hill above town:

A view of the town from the fortress hill:

The partially reconstructed medieval fortress of Lovech - a major town during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom and one of the last to be conquered by the Ottoman army:

Old houses in Varosha:

One of the entrances of the covered bridge:

Inside

and outside the bridge: