Dragoyna Peak

Dragoyna Peak is known as one of the northernmost ridges of the Rhodope Mountains, situated between Dragoynovo and Bukovo. A Thracian sanctuary lies on the summit, the subject of scholarly investigation in recent years but still relatively unknown to the general public. Archaeological expeditions from the Plovdiv Museum conducted the first investigations in 2004–2006.
Access from Dragoynovo involves a longer walk of approximately three hours, while the ascent from Bukovo is shorter. The sanctuary, occupied from the thirteenth to the third century BC, has a defensive wall erected in the fifth century BC according to researchers from the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum. The sanctuary itself covers around one decare and is enclosed by a stone wall whose collapsed remains are visible on the surface.
A unique Byzantine-period fortress, called Kozlek by local residents, has also been discovered one kilometre from Dragoynovo. Three distinctive churches have been uncovered in the same area. Legends link the fortress with the boyar Dragoy, who governed the region and gave the village its name. Archaeologists note that evidence of a tenth-century culture in which Bulgarians and Byzantines coexisted peacefully was first discovered around Dragoynovo. Unique bilingual rock inscriptions have been found, the largest containing seventeen lines, partly in the Greek alphabet and partly in Cyrillic. These discoveries support the idea that the frontiers of the First Bulgarian Empire and Byzantium extended beyond the Balkan Mountains to the northern slopes of the Rhodopes.