Okolchitsa Peak

Okolchitsa, also known as Vola, is a peak in the Vratsa Mountains within Hristo Botev National Park, about 20 kilometres southeast of Vratsa. On 1 June 1876, or 20 May Old Style, the last battle of Botev's revolutionary detachment took place on Okolchitsa Peak.

Between 1936 and 1939, a 35-metre monument topped by a Volunteer Corps cross was erected on Okolchitsa to honour the heroism of Hristo Botev and his detachment. In the Yolkovitsa hollow, a natural rock bears a carved inscription marking the place where the poet and revolutionary died. In 1947, the cross on the monument was replaced by a five-pointed star, but the monument's original appearance was restored in 1991.

Okolchitsa is one of Bulgaria's Hundred National Tourist Sites. The Okolchitsa mountain hut, about 300 metres from the monument, is currently closed, but visitors can obtain the site's stamp at the Baba Iliytsa House Museum in Chelopek village and at the Regional History Museum in Vratsa.

National commemorations are held in the area every year on 2 June in memory of Hristo Botev and all those who died for Bulgaria's freedom. On 1 June, participants in the national hiking march following the footsteps of Botev's detachment arrive along the trail from the Kozloduy riverbank, and an entire tent camp is set up. Besides Botev's Trail, there are many other marked hiking routes. In summer, regular buses run from Vratsa; in other seasons they run as far as Chelopek, from which the peak is another 8 kilometres away.