Half-hourly buses speed across the dusty plain between Plovdiv and ASENOVGRAD 20km south, a light and breezy town built around a large park. Train and bus terminals lie on the northern outskirts, from where it's a short walk through a park and across the river to a modern town square. Two church spires are visible on the hill immediately above: the resplendently ochre-coloured Sveti Dimitâr on the left and the smaller Sveta Troitsa on the right. More interesting, however, is the town's main shopping thoroughfare running south from the square, where a small Historical Museum (Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 2-5pm) holds local Neolithic and Thracian finds - including a fine bronze helmet and the iron wheel rims of a Thracian chariot.

It was the Thracians who first fortified a crag overlooking the entrance to the Chepelarska gorge, which can be reached by a side-road 2.5km south of town. If it seems a hard slog, remember that the thirteenth-century Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa just below the summit was rebuilt by a disabled man who walked every day to work on his self-appointed task. Higher uphill are the remains of a medieval fortess founded during the eleventh century and enlarged after Asen II's victory over the Byzantine Empire in 1230, half of which slid down the hill some years ago. From this derived Asenovgrad's medieval name, Stanimaka - "protector of the mountain pass".

If you want to stay , you could try the two-star Hotel Asenovets on the main square (tel 0331/23288; US$18-36), though you'd do better to take one of the regular buses up the valley towards Bachkovo, Chepelare or Smolyan.