Hisarya

Heritage/a journey we curate for you

Hisarya

Roman walls and thermal gardens

setting

Heritage

where

Hisarya, Bulgaria

best season

April to October for the parks and the walls…

ideal for

Thermal Retreat

( the feeling of it )

A spa town living inside Roman walls, with a gate that broke in the middle and has been called the Camels ever since.

( the story )

A Bulgarian spa town inside the country's best-preserved Roman walls, founded on its hot springs and known to Rome as Diocletianopolis.

Hisarya was founded thousands of years ago, most likely because of the hot springs, and the Romans made it Diocletianopolis after the emperor Diocletian. What survives is remarkable: the best-preserved Roman city walls in Bulgaria, still standing around the town, including the southern gate everyone calls the Camels — it broke in the middle at some point and came to look like two camels facing each other, before a partial restoration in the early twentieth century. Inside the walls are a small amphitheatre, the foundations of some of the oldest churches in the country, and Thracian tombs nearby. The springs were rediscovered after 1878 and the town became a recreation place again, which is what it remains: leafy, low-key, at 346 metres, with the walls running through the parks.

Vislupus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

You don’t simply book a room in Hisarya. You tell us what you’re seeking — stillness, ceremony, the mountains, the table — and we curate the days around you.

( field notes, dawn to night )

A day here

morning

The Camels gate in early light, with the town going about its business around it.

midday

The amphitheatre, and the foundations of some of the oldest churches in the country.

afternoon

Into the mineral water, in a town that has been doing this for two thousand years.

evening

Under the trees in the park with a Roman wall running behind the benches.

Experiences we can arrange

Curated Spa Stays
Mineral Water Treatments
Guided Roman Heritage Walks
Private Transfers
Garden & Park Walks

( let us curate your retreat )

A quiet spa town turns out to be a Roman city that never quite stopped.

Take the waters, like everyone since Diocletian.

best time to visit — April to October for the parks and the walls in leaf; the spa town works in any season.

tell us what you're seeking · we compose the days around you

have us curate this →