Hiking trail Vitata stena
“Strazhata” (The Guard) is the largest karst plateau located between Sevlievo, Dryanovo and Gabrovo. To the northwest it ends with the arched “Vitata stena” (702 m). From the vertical rock wreath in front of the visitors in all directions and during all seasons a picturesque horizon is revealed.
In ancient times, it was also strategically evaluated. In the caves of the rock wreath the primitive people found refuge and left fragments of vessels, bone and other objects in them. On the barren back of the rock the Thracians (6th-5th century BC) have built a fortification of stones cemented with mud solution. By order of the Roman emperors in the 2nd-4th centuries the fortified Thracian settlement became a significant stronghold for guarding the nearby road coming from the Danube. The Roman-Byzantine fortress on Vitata Stena existed in the 4th – 6th century until the arrival of our ancestors – Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians – to come to life as a feudal and boyar centre in the Second Bulgarian Empire 12th – 14th century.
