Asen’s Fortress

Asen’s Fortress stands in the Rhodope Mountains, 2 km from Asenovgrad. It consists of a defensive wall enclosing an inner fortification, or citadel. In addition to the wall, the fortress was protected by its strategic position. It occupies a high rocky ridge, with sheer cliffs on some sides making access from those directions entirely impossible. The only easy approach is from the south-west, where a path for horsemen and pedestrians was cut into the rock. Initially, only a small strategic tower-fortress was built here. The medieval settlement of Stenimachos developed at the foot of the cliffs. In the 13th century, the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II strengthened and extended the fortress. The enclosing wall was gradually built, and the area it protected contained an inner defensive tower, water reservoirs, a church and living quarters. The Church of the Holy Mother of God of Petrich has two storeys: the lower one was intended as a crypt, although it never fulfilled that purpose, while the upper storey forms the church proper.

The fortress was destroyed by the devastating Chirpan earthquake of 1928. It has been restored several times and is now designated a cultural monument of national importance and included among Bulgaria’s 100 National Tourist Sites.