Vrachanski Balkan

Vratsa Balkan Nature Park was created in 1989 in north-western Bulgaria, in the western part of the Stara Planina, and protects some 289 km² of an essentially limestone massif.

Its most spectacular feature is the Vratsata gorge, opened in the limestone on the doorstep of the city of Vratsa, with vertical walls exceeding four hundred metres that constitute the largest climbing area in the Balkans. The karst of the massif is highly developed, with more than seven hundred catalogued cavities; the best known is the Ledenika cave, with large chambers and ice formations in winter, open to the public since the early twentieth century.

The vegetation combines beech and oak woods with grasslands and crags, and the park holds an important cliff-nesting bird community. On its walls one of the most successful griffon vulture reintroduction programmes in the Balkans has been carried out: the species had become extinct in the area and has bred again after successive releases from the beginning of this century. The caves hold significant bat colonies.