Dryanovo is a little town, in the central north of Bulgaria with a population of just over 7000 people. Is it worth it to visit Dryanovo? Yes! It is tiny, and yet, there are many reasons to visit it. If you don’t believe me, let me show you the best things to see in Dryanovo and its surroundings.
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Dryanovo town (град Дряново).
First, let’s see the town itself. It is located, just north of the Balkan mountains (Стара Планина). You will be surprised, but this town has more than 2000 years of history. It has been a part of the ancient Byzantine empire, later the first Bulgarian country, Byzantine again, Bulgaria again, Türkiye, and back to Bulgaria.
Now, it is clearly a modern town, but you can still see many buildings from the Bulgarian National Revival period. Most of the cool buildings are designed by the famous master builder Kolyu Ficheto. That guy had golden hands and he has constructed many of the incredible buildings in the area. What he liked to build a lot were bridges. When you visit Drynovo, one of the things to do is to walk on the Kolyu Ficheto bridge and take a picture. It is magnificent.
In the town, there is a complete museum about that guy – the Kolyu Ficheto museum. It is worth seeing. You can easily spot it, it is the massive building right in the center. There you can see mini replicas of his bridges, churches, and many more buildings.
Kolyu Ficheto also built a cool bridge in Lovech, you can see it in this article: ”What to do in Lovech (Ловеч)? - A great Bulgarian destination you should visit!”.
Next to the Kolyu Ficheto museum, you can see the Holy Trinity church, made by him too.
Don’t miss the Dryanovo Clock tower too. It was the pride of the town when it was built in 1778. It was the first clock tower in Bulgaria! The local people really liked it, but sadly in 1945, it was destroyed. The times were tough, so there was no way to rebuild right after the war, but still, many locals didn’t forget it. The architect Ilya Lefterov, a great Bulgarian, spent a lot of his wealth on rebuilding old Bulgarian monuments and he also helped with the rebuilding of the Dryanovo Clock Tower. With his designs, it was restored in 1984, and ever since, all the people of Dryanovo are very thankful to him and happy.
We arrived in Dryanovo by car, and we stopped, just because it was on our way. Usually, when we pass around there, we always stop in Veliko Tarnovo, but this time we wanted to see something new. We are very happy with the surprises, that Drynovo had for us.
Dryanovski Monastery, the Saint Arcangel Michael (Дряновски манастир „Свети Архангел Михаил“)
Near Dryanovo, 6km away, you can find the Dryanovski monastery. You can go by bus, train or by car. Just follow the Dryanovska river, direction towards Gabrovo.
The monastery is in great shape, it has a free entrance, but you need to pay for the parking. What you can see there is a very well-preserved monastery with hundreds of years of history.
First, there was a Byzantine fortress (5th century), later the fortress was part of the Bulgarian kingdom (10th century). The first Christian building was created during king Kaloyan (1206). The current version of the Dryanovski Monastery was created in 1845 and has been very important for the Bulgarian Liberation Movement (We were under Turkish occupation for 500 years!).
This is why there is a monument of the freedom fighters too.
Now it is a typical touristic place, where you can buy souvenirs, eat or drink in a restaurant and make many pictures.
You can even stay the night there. Many Bulgarian churches and monasteries function like hotels, so you can stay in an authentic building and feel how the Bulgarians were living during the 19th century. In others, they have already put air conditioners and TV, so they have ruined this experience.
The Bacho Kiro cave (пещерата Бачо Киро)
Next to the Dryanovski monastery, there are more surprises, and one of them is the Bacho Kiro cave. In this area, there have been living humans for more than 100 000 years! Isn’t it crazy? People lived there forever and still, today’s population is just 7000 people. I don’t understand how this works.
The Bacho Kiro cave has different routes, and the total length of the tunnels is 3600 meters. Now there are two routes for tourists, short and long. Inside, it is well-lit, and you can see the beautiful natural shapes that time has created. At the entrance, there are information boards, telling you the story of the first people, what they ate and how did they live. Very fascinating!
The Dryanovo waterfalls (Дряновски водопад)
The Dryanovo waterfall was one of our main reasons to visit Dryanovo in the first place. We love waterfalls and nature. The whole combination of a waterfall, cave, and a monastery in a single place, was enough to make it a stop on our trip through North Bulgaria.
When we got there, we had a surprise. It is not one, but two waterfalls there in the surroundings of Dryanovo. Both of them are just around a 10-minute walk from the parking, so they are extremely easy to visit and enjoy. They are not big, but the water stream is really strong, and the sound of the water crashing is delightful. The main one, the Dryanovo waterfall is 5-meter high. Since most of the tourists visit only the monastery, you can really enjoy a tranquil environment around.
The best moment to visit it is during Spring or early Summer when it has more water.
If you like waterfalls, check out these amazing waterfalls near Veliko Tarnovo.
The Bench of Love (Пейката на любовта)
How romantic does it sound, right? There is a Bench of Love, right on top of the Dryanovo Monastery. Starting from Dryanovo monastery, the trekking takes around 15 minutes. It is a bit steep, but not really hard, and even old people can visit it. When you arrive, you will see a beautiful view of the mountains. You can see the monastery, rocks on the other side, and even a train, passing close. It is a really nice place to have a picnic with your loved one. We were super lucky, and we could have the whole Bench of Love, just for us for more than an hour.
Conclusion
Our visit to Dryanovo was short, but we loved it. I am a Bulgarian, and I got surprised by how interesting Dryanovo and its surroundings were. It is a great destination for a weekend. You can spend one complete day in the town, and another around Dryanovo monastery, the caves, waterfalls, and nearby trekkings.
So, the conclusion is that Dryanovo is a really good destination, that not so many people know. Especially foreigners are not very aware that it exists.
We started in Varna. Recently we were at Zlaten waterfall and Pirineshki Dzhendem waterfall. We are now in Dryanovo. Our next stop will be Etar, then Lovech, and more interesting destinations in North Bulgaria and Romania, on the way to Budapest (Hungary). Join our trip here on packandgo.info.
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