[size=85:2u2afktc]Sofia echo 18 June 2010

Healing waters




I had already been living in Bulgaria for a few years before I discovered what has become the country’s number one attraction for me: its healing waters from an abundance of hot mineral springs. We are living at a time when a volcano in far-away Iceland spewing out red-hot ash almost brought the world’s transport systems to a halt, and when a man-made intrusion for black gold deep on the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico has set massive alarm bells ringing ecologically in a catastrophe that has shaken the world’s most developed economy to the core.

How very lucky for us that the geology which provides our own treasured nutritional, health-giving and recreational resource has proved to be safe, predictable and sustainable for the past several millennia. The only danger if you fell into one of the hotter outlets would be to come out looking like a boiled lobster. I am not an eminent historian, but as a Scot who comes from north of Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans to protect us from marauding English, I know a bit about the legacy left by the Roman Empire 2000 years ago in the BB (Before Berlusconi) era. My personal nirvana in this respect is therefore Hisarya.

I have to admit that Velingrad, Kyustendil and Devin also come high on my list of spa resorts where mineral waters are immensely beneficial and managed as an excellent tourist resource. Each visit to the hotels Dvoretsa, Strimon and Orphei respectively gives me a wonderful feeling of well-being. Swimming in their outdoor pools with snow on the ground and 20 degrees of frost is quite magical. Whether under the stars or indoors, winter or summer alike, the set of three Roman Baths (tepidarium, caldarium then frigidarium) provide contrasting sensations never to be forgotten. For me they miraculously healed a severely bruised arm.

Apart from a major focus by the Romans on Varna and Plovdiv, they proved their uncanny nose for geography and geology in finding Hisarya as a place in which to deploy massive resources, building on a spa locality that had already been surprisingly developed over the previous several thousand years. In the intermediate few dozen centuries it was an important Thracian city, and when Thrace fell to the Romans it attracted huge inward investment (now known as FDI) to build a fort, barracks, baths, an amphitheatre and extensive water management systems;
also gardens, woodlands and dwellings. The whole project was on a scale that would make today’s Roman (and Bulgarian) bankers at UniCredit Bulbank green with envy.

The climate here is as favourable as the geology which adds to the feeling of a green and fertile place which is a wonderful refuge from the pressures of day-to-day life. Not surprisingly, one of the best Council of Ministers rest-houses is in Hisarya. As can be seen from my pictures, the Roman remains are astonishingly well preserved and show a superb level of engineering and craftsmanship. They are co-ordinated in their layout and landscaping with the parks, gardens, fountains and beautiful trees. Now, of course, there are a number of good hotels, each blending in surprisingly well with the unique surroundings. They have all made a feature of the copious flow of mineral waters in well-designed spa facilities: their rich natural water supply would be the envy of much grander spa hotels all over the planet.

On my May visit to Diocletianopolis (today’s Hisarya) I followed in the footsteps of the Emperor Septimus Severus who took seriously his responsibility to visit the troops on foreign postings and campaigns. I have little doubt that he came away just as refreshed and invigorated as I did on my return to work in Sofia the following week.