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Escape
to Leshten

Remote village provides

unspoilt old-time atmosphere,
great food
by Violeta Rozova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

Rural tourism in Bulgaria was barely known 20 years ago, but

in the early 2000s it experienced an EU-funded boom. But in the
late 2000s the still ongoing economic crisis hit and now many
guesthouses are struggling to survive with the decreased number
of visitors. In the western fringes of the Rhodope, however, is a
traditional village which is still one of the best places for rural
tourism in Bulgaria.
Leshten, close to Gotse Delchev, actually "invented" rural tourism
in Bulgaria. Since the mid-1990s, it has been the first choice for an
escape from the big city for all those interested in clean air, delicious
healthy food and genuinely and intelligently preserved architecture.
Truth to tell, Leshten is hardly a village nowadays. Only 10 people
live there, and most of them are septuagenarian. In the 19th and the
first half of the 20th centuries, however, Leshten was a bustling place,
home to more than 500 people. Unlike the inhabitants of nearby
Kovachevitsa, who built three- and four-storey mini fortresses to
protect their riches, the people of Leshten were poor. They had less
to lose and so they built houses of only two floors. The ground level
was for the livestock, and the one above for the families.

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2 3
4

Top: A statue of two icecream

cones?
Bottom: The Buzludzha complex is
famous for its ghastly atmosphere

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1 The key to your room. Each

detail in the 200-year old Leshten

houses has been preserved

23

, The St Paraskeva Church

was built in 1837, and has been
listed as a local monument of
culture

4 Having breakfast while enjoying

the view to the Mesta Valley and
the Pirin is one of Leshten's many
pleasures

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Kovachevitsa and Leshten both began to lose inhabitants at a great

rate after the Communist coup of 1944, when industrialisation and
forced collectivisation striped the villagers of their livelihood and
forced them to seek jobs in cities. Kovachevitsa, as a much grander
village, attracted the attention of Bulgarian film-makers in the 1970s,
and experienced a wave of new settlers, mostly Sofia intellectuals,
who bought holiday homes there.
Leshten was rediscovered much later.
In the mid-1990s, a couple from Sofia found themselves in the
village, with its ghostly and abandoned old houses. They fell in love
with Leshten, as it had an unexpected advantage over crowd-pulling
Kovachevitsa. Kovachevitsa is deep in the mountains and does not
have much of a vista.
Leshten, however, has a marvellous view over the valley of the
Mesta River, with the blue slopes of the Pirin defining the horizon.
Quite unusually for the mid-1990s, when everyone was either
leaving Bulgaria or flocking to Sofia where job prospects were better,
the couple moved to Leshten. They bought some of the houses and
turned them into holiday lets, while preserving as much as possible
the traditional architecture, and opened one of the best restaurants
in Bulgaria. This was in the long-disused local school, next to the
beautiful and tiny St Paraskeva Church, which dates from 1836 and is
covered inside with primitive, but captivating murals.

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1
2 3

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1 Stone was used extensively in

building the houses of Leshten,

and even the roofs are from rock.
The technique was popular in
Bulgaria until the beginning of
the 20th Century, but was later
abandoned. It has been enjoying
a revival in recent years as surge
of interest in eco tourism has
brought it back to fashion

2 Leshten is a good base

for exploring of the Western

Rhodope, with traditional villages
like Kovachevitsa and Dolen, and
pristine wild nature all around

3 Fresco from St Paraskeva

Church with a didactic scene

advertising the advantages of
pious life

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The food in the tavern was locally sourced long before this became
fashionable. Almost everything on the menu comes from the area,
from the wild berry juice and the thick sheeps yoghurt, to the
traditional egg noodles and the meatballs which are prepared not of
mince, but of finely chopped meat.
The restored traditional houses are on a par with the food's quality.
Intelligently preserved yet having mod cons, they smell of ageing
wood, geraniums and of woollen rugs warmed by the sun. The walls
are whitewashed, white linen curtains with embroidery shade the
windows, and the slightly crooked beams of the floor squeak quietly
under your feet.
Recently, however, more people decided to profit on Leshten.
More houses were turned into hotels and, as the competition grew,
one night the old school caught fire and burned to the ground. The
tavern was re-established in a newer building, with a beautiful view
of the Mesta Valley. The food is still gorgeous, the best the Rhodope
and the people living in these beautiful mountains can give you.

This series of articles is supported by the

America for Bulgaria Foundation. The
statements and opinions expressed herein
are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria
Foundation and its partners.