Hisarya

Hisarya (Хисаря, pronounced hi-SAH-ryah) is a health resort in Central Bulgaria, famous for its hot mineral springs and the Roman ruins in its heart. It's one of the oldest and largest balneotherapy resorts in Bulgaria, and probably the most famous one; it produces one of the most well-known brands of bottled mineral water in the country, dating back to the Communist era (1958). It's a small town (population of 6.5 thousand) nested in a mountain valley in the Sredna Gora range, east of the capital Sofia,  north of Plovdiv and  south-west of Karlovo.

Understand
There are 22 mineral water springs in Hisarya - 16 natural and 6 artificial (boreholes), with temperatures ranging. Their waters are alkaline, with low mineralisation (170-275 mg/l). The water of the Momina Banya spring contains low amounts of the radioactive gas radon (Rn, element 86) - 165 Eman/l, or 16,500 picocuries/l.

Name
The name of the town originates from the Roman ruins: "hisar" is the Turkish word for "fortress" (a borrowing from Arabic), but with a Bulgarian definitive suffix (-ya) - "the Hisar". Confusingly, the use of the suffix is inconsistent - it's sometimes dropped even on road signs and in official documents (Хисар). The name is sometimes also spelled with a double S to make the correct pronunciation more clear - Hissarya, Hissar.

History
The hot springs have attracted people there since prehistoric ages. Archaeologists have found remnants from a settlement dating back to the Late Neolithic Age (5th millennium BCE). In later times, the Thracians settled the area, which was conquered by the Roman Empire in the first century CE. The settlement grew into a city, which was destroyed by the Goths in the 3rd century, then rebuilt and fortified with thick walls in the 4th century. The exact name of the town hasn't been positively identified (e.g. by finding an inscription), but possible names mentioned in ancient sources include Augustae, Sevastopolis, and Diocletianopolis ("City of Diocletian", afer the Roman emperor of that name), with indirect evidence suggesting the last option as the most probable. After the Empire split, the town remained a part of the Byzantine Empire until it was conquered by the First Bulgarian Empire in the 8th century. The fortress was likely destroyed during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 14th century.

Settlements in the area start appearing again in historical record in the 17th century. While in Hissarya the population was mainly Turkish, in the nearby villages Verigovo and Momina Banya (now quarters of the town) there lived enthusiastic Bulgarians who took an active part in the fight against the Ottoman rule. In 1868 Vassil Levski founded a revolutionary committee in Verigovo, 15 members of who took part in The Grand People’s Gathering at Oborishte. The village rose in rebellion against the Turkish rule in April 1876 together with other villages in the area, but it was devastated when the April Uprising was suppressed - the village was burnt down, many people were slaughtered, others sent on exile to Cyprus Island, some were driven away.

After the Liberation War, the place remained within Eastern Rumelia, but its potential as a health resort was recognized by the government even before the Unification. In 1942, the villages of Hisar and Momina Banya were merged, and the settlement received town status in 1964 under its modern name. Later, the nearby villages of Verigovo and Miromir were added to the town as outlying neighbourhoods in 1971.

By train
Hisarya is the end point of a short branch line that splits off the Karlovo-Plovdiv line, which in turn is a secondary line that connects the Sub-Balkan Railway in the north and the main lines passing through Plovdiv in the south. This means that reaching Hisarya requires changing trains at the split-off station (Dolna Mahala), but the schedules are synchronized to reduce waiting to a minimum. From either Karlovo or Plovdiv, the trip lasts 70-75 min. Both the station's sign and BDZ's website call the station just Hisar (Хисар).

As of the summer of 2024, you can disregard the above: the shuttle train to Hisarya is suspended due to the ongoing renovations at Sofia Central Station. The train normally serving the line was transferred to Sofia to ferry passengers between Sofia Central and Sofia North. Renovations are expected to last at least a year.

By car
Road 642 splits off from and then merges back into Road 64, which runs north-south and connects Karlovo and Plovdiv. In both cases, the exit is to the west side of Road 64. Hisarya is from Karlovo/Sopot and  from Plovdiv.

Get around
Hisarya is a small, mostly flat town, and most of the points of interest are concentrated in a relatively small area. Public transport does exit - three bus lines connect the outlaying neighborhoods to the central part of the town.

The ruins
The walls of the Roman city encompass a roughly rectangular area, 630 by, approx. ; in places, they have been preserved up to a height of. The fortifications included 44 towers and four main gates, one for each cardinal direction, but only the southern and western gates are relatively well-preserved. In addition to the various ruins, the area within the walls contains a park with mineral water drinking fountains and a sizable modern residential area.

Do

 * Fishing Pond - common carp, caracian carp, silver carp, catfish
 * Motocross track

Bathing
In addition to the hotels' spa and pool facilities (see below), there's also a number of standalone pools and baths.

Hiking
Hisarya lies at the base of the south-eastern slopes/foothills of the Proper (Central) Sredna Gora range (Sashtinska Sredna Gora), on the west side of the gap separating the central range from Sarnena Gora (Eastern Sredna Gora). There are a couple of spots suitable for short hikes or picnics outside of Hisarya - the crosses mentioned in - but as they are used primarily by the locals, the footpaths leading to them are not particularly well marked and may not show up even in OpenStreetMap.

More serious hikes involve venturing deeper west into the woods of Sredna Gora, multi-hour stages and altitudes of more than above sea level, so prepare accordingly. The Communist-era hiking infrastructure in Sredna Gora has been in decline for decades, and few of the mountain huts remain in operation; the 2008 economic crisis and COVID-19 haven't been kind to modern enterprises either. Due to the inconsistent (or non-existent in the first place) trail markings, using a map and a GPS-enabled device is a must. Online map sources: OpenStreetMap and BGMountains.org (online map zoomed in on Fenera Peak; downloadable maps for Garmin with Latin place names). There's also a paper hiking map of Sredna Gora in 1:50,000 scale published by Domino in 2016 (red cover, title on yellow rectangles; allegedly in Bulgarian and English, but mostly in Bulgarian; information about any businesses is probably obsolete).

Drink

 * The water from local mineral springs is bottled under the brand name ХИСАР (HISSAR).

Sleep
Being a resort town, Hisarya has a disproportionate number of hotels and other lodgings.

Camping and mountain huts

 * Fenera Hut (peak, Thracian ruins)

Cope
The former village of Miromir, now an outlaying neighborhood, is one of the few Roman Catholic enclaves in Bulgaria, and has a functioning church.

Starosel
Starosel is a large village (pop. 900) west of Hisarya (along Road 6061, which splits off Road 642 south of Hisarya). It's notable for several Thracian ruins nearby, as well as for being the starting point of a marked hiking trail that reached Fenera Peak (see ). Starosel can be reached by buses starting at Hisarya's bus station.

Go next

 * Karlovo and Sopot to the north
 * Plovdiv to the south