Round Trip.
Including the Buzludzha monument
- Miles: 65
- Start: Gabrovo
- End: Gabrovo
- Time: 3 to 7 hours
- Suitability: all bikes and riders
Shipka Pass is a beautiful mountain route that winds through the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria, marking the border between the Stara Zagora and Gabrovo provinces. It links the towns of Gabrovo and Kazanlak and lies within the picturesque Bulgarka Nature Park.
The pass lies 13 km north of the small town of Shipka by road. It’s traversed by national road I-5, which stretches from the Danube at the Ruse border crossing with Romania in the north to the Makaza border crossing with Greece in the south.
The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, better known as the Buzludzha Monument, was built on Buzludzha Peak in central Bulgaria by the communist government and opened in 1981. It marks the 1891 gathering of socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev, who met secretly in the area to form an organized socialist movement. This eventually led to the creation of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, a predecessor of the Bulgarian Communist Party, which later became the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
