Travel Guide Bulgaria

I went to my home town Varna to celebrate Easter with my family. On my way back to Sofia there was a friend of mine who travelled with me - Veneta.

We decided to stop and see the Madara Horseman. I hadn’t been there since 4-th grade and I remembered it quite vaguely. There are good road signs on the highway that take you directly to the place (around 10-15 minute drive from the highway). We arrived at road stop with a few coffee-houses, a parking place and some other buildings. There are a few ways to get to the horseman, the shortest is 5 minute walk on the direct stairs and an eco-path that goes for around 2 hours and visits the castle, caves and the church remains.


At first we didn’t see the horseman but in one of the coffee shops there is a binocular that points directly to it. After that you can spot it with bare eyes. We took the short path up and in 5 minutes we were right below it. There was an ugly framework near the horseman with an advertisement of one of Bulgaria’s mobile operators, a notice with a short description and a few benches. You can clearly see the horseman with his dog and a spear, but the lion and the Greek text is not visible.

Then we took the path to the castle. It is a path left of the horseman that goes up on the ridge with stone steps. There are a few benches on the way and an excellent view of Madara village. After 20 minute climb you are on top of the ridge and just a couple of hundred meters from the castle. I think the castle has been partially reconstructed because the stones looked pretty sharpen which is not common for a 1000 years old ruin, but this gives a nice perspective of what exactly it looked like. Inside on some of the stones there are some icons placed showing where exactly the church was standing.