Everything about Cherni Vrah totally explained
Cherni Vrah (/ ‘Black Peak’) is the summit of
Vitosha Mountain in
Bulgaria. Rising to 2290 m, the peak is the fourth highest mountain summit in the country after
Musala (2925 m,
Rila Mountain),
Vihren (2914 m,
Pirin Mountain), and
Botev Vrah (2376 m,
Balkan Range).
Cherni Vrah is bounded to the northwest by
Torfeno Branishte (Turf Nature Reserve) which — like the extensive adjacent territory to the south — is a no-go drinking water
catchment area. Several major
stone rivers are situated in the peak's vicinity, occupying the upper courses of
Vladayska and
Boyanska Rivers to the north, and
Struma River to the south.
The peak is part of the
water divide between
Black Sea and
Mediterranean Sea, its northern slopes draining into
Iskar River, and eventually into
Danube River and Black Sea, and the southern slopes draining into Matnitsa River, flowing in turn into
Struma River and
Aegean Sea.
Cherni Vrah hosts a weather station built in 1935, one year after the mountain became the oldest
national park on the
Balkans. The station provides refuge in bad weather (no tourist accommodation though), and has a well supplied cafeteria offering hot meals. A
Mountain Rescue Service team is based on the peak too. The nearest mountain
chalets are
Aleko Chalet situated 3 km to the north-northeast (1810 m, major
ski and
snowboard centre accessible by
gondola lift from
Simeonovo,
Sofia), and Kumata Chalet (1725 m) situated 5.5 km to the northwest. Ski paths link Cherni Vrah to Aleko and Kumata areas in winter, and a ski run on the northern slope of the peak itself is served by a 600-m
surface lift.
With its annual average wind speed of 9.3 m/s Cherni Vrah is the second most windy peak in Bulgaria after
Murgash Peak in the
Balkan Range (10.3 m/s).
The legend holds it that Cherni Vrah was climbed as early as 181 B.C. by King
Philip V of Macedon. Nowadays, the easiest access to the peak is by a 1.4-km track from the upper station of Romanski chair lift situated on
Malak Rezen Peak (2191 m).
Cherni Vrah has a special place in
Bulgarian tourism. Thanks to its proximity to
Sofia the peak is by far the most visited mountain summit in the country, attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually. The first group of tourists to climb the peak involved 300 people, among them the contemporary doyen of
Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov, and was lead by another famous Bulgarian
writer,
Aleko Konstantinov. The event took place on August 27, 1895, and annual tourist rallies are held on Cherni Vrah on that date considered the birthday of Bulgarian tourist movement.
The
etymology of the name
Cherni Vrah (Black Peak) is uncertain. Popularly, it's attributed to the black colour of the conspicuous rock formations dominating the peak's tip. Another belief holds it that the name derived from the darker appearance the peak presumably had in the past, when the
Subalpine zone of
Vitosha used to be overgrown by
mountain pine (
Pinus mugo) that was burnt in the
Middle Ages to expand
sheep pastures. Nowadays only few isolated
mountain pine communities have survived in the vicinity of Cherni Vrah, and their process of expansion and recovery is very slow.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cherni Vrah'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://cherni_vrah.totallyexplained.com">Cherni Vrah Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
