Pirin is a high, stony range with 118 glacial lakes and nobody living in it. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, and it is the place to walk when the spring towns have done their work.
( at a glance )
Pirin National Park, in a few lines
01
403.56 square kilometres, from 950 metres up to Vihren at 2,914 metres, the second highest peak in Bulgaria
02
118 glacial lakes, the largest and deepest of them Popovo Lake
03
Snezhnika, the southernmost glacier in Europe, sits under the north face of Vihren
04
Baikushev’s pine, about 1,300 years old, is the oldest tree in Bulgaria
05
No villages inside the park; visitor centres in Bansko and Sandanski
06
159 species of birds and 45 of mammals
( the place )
About Pirin National Park
Pirin is a place of rock, cloud and meadow. The ridge walks are long and exposed; the valleys are quiet, with pines and green clearings, and streams that come down from the lakes. About 95 per cent of the forest is conifer, and it is old, on average 85 years.
From Sandanski it is the near end of the range, and from Bansko the far one. The park is state-owned and protected, with two nature reserves inside it, one of them among the oldest in Bulgaria. It is a place to be a guest in.
