Lovech (Bulgarian: Ловеч) is a city in North Bulgaria, on the river Osam under the foothills of the Balkan Mountains. A gateway to the important pass Beklemeto and the mountain crafts centre Troyan, it's also home to a number of preserved 19th century buildings and a covered bridge.

Understand

The Covered Bridge

The partially restored ruins of the Hisarya fortress

Lovech is 30 km (19 mi) almost directly south of Pleven, 75 km (47 mi) west of Veliko Tarnovo, and 120 km (75 mi) north-east of the capital Sofia. With a population of about 27,000 (2021), Lovech is the administrative centre of Lovech Province, and one of the smallest of Bulgaria's 27 province centres, comparable to Razgrad and Silistra. Lovech Province itself extends to the south and south-west, and consists mostly of hilly and mountainous terrain. The only other settlement in the province above 10,000 citizens is the town of Troyan; smaller towns include Teteven, Lukovit, and Letnitsa.

Lovech is one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria.

Get in

By train

• From Sofia

By bus

• From Sofia
• From Pleven

See

• The Hisarya Fortress
• The Covered Bridge. The current bridge from 1931 is 106 m long and has 14 shops
• The Varosha old town part (ethnographic complex), with Drasova and Rashova memorial houses
• The baroque buildings in the town's central parts
• The monument of Vasil Levski
• The monuments to Russian soldiers killed in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78

Museums

• Vasil Levski Museum

Do

• Stratesh Park with the biggest zoo in the province
• Bash Bunar Park

Sleep

Budget

• Tinkov House, 8 Daskal Nikola st., ☏ +359 899 812 747, info@tinkov-house.com. From €15. 

Mid-range

• Hotel Lovech, 12 Targovska Str., ☏ +359 68 604 717, info@hotellovech.com. Free access to the fitness gym and the swimming pool. Single room 30 лв. (updated Oct 2023)
• Hotel Varosha, ☏ +359 68 60 33 77, info@hotelvarosha.com. 

Splurge

• Presidivm Palace, 51 Targovska Str., ☏ +359 68 687 501, info@presidivm.com. 

Nearby

Devetashka Cave

• 1 Devetashka Cave (Деветашката пещера, Devetashkata peshtera) (16 km (9.9 mi) north-east of Lovech, on the southern side of National Road 301, which leaves Lovech towards Levski and the E83/National Road 3; between the villages of Yoglav ('Йоглав') and Aleksandrovo ('Александрово'); there's a small road branching south-east and a free parking lot). Summer (Apr-Sep?): 8:00—20:00; winter (Oct-Mar?): 9:00—16:00. Large, open karst cave (the ceiling reaches more than 60 m (200 ft) in height in some places), named after the nearby village of Devetaki ('Деветаки', Devetashkata peshtera = "the cave of Devetaki"). It was inhabited by cave people during the neolithic age, then used by the military to store fuel during the Cold War, now it's a protected habitat of endangered birds and bats. Some scenes of the 2012 action movie The Expendables 2 were filmed there. Adults: 3 лв, various discounts apply. (updated Oct 2024)

  Reaching it by rail is theoretically possible - the nearest station is the unattended stop/halt at Doyrentsi ('Дойренци') on the line between Lovech and Levski; it's a 4.5 km (2.8 mi) hike to the cave.

• 2 Kurshuna Falls (by the village of Kurshuna ('Куршуна'), 30 km (19 mi) north-east of Lovech, 6 km (3.7 mi) south-west of the small town of Letnitsa and 10 km (6.2 mi) south-west of the railway junction town of Levski). A series of low, but picturesque waterfalls, a somewhat famous hiking destination. Like most karst waterfalls, the amount of water varies with the weather - it's best to visit them in late spring. (updated Oct 2024)

Kakrina

Kakrina ('Къкрина') is a village 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Lovech, notable for a single historic event - Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski was captured by the Ottoman authorities at the Kakrina Inn, which lead to his execution in Sofia in 1873. Now there's a small museum and a monument to Levski.

• 3 Kakrina Inn (Къкринското ханче, Kakrinskoto hanche). Summer (Apr-Sept?): 8:30–12:00, 13:30–17:30; winter (Oct-Mar?): 9:00–12:00, 13:00–17:00. A tiny museum, one of the (more than) 100 National Tourist Sites of Bulgaria, though it's more of a patriotic pilgrimage site. The building is a recreation rebuilt on the foundations of the original inn in the 1930s. Adults: 3 лв, various discounts apply. (updated Oct 2024)