Mountains

Villa Rossa

Thermal calm in the Rhodope forest

setting

Mountains

where

Narechenski Bani, Bulgaria

best season

Year

ideal for

Spa Retreat

( the feeling of it )

Built as a head of state's private residence. Now adults only, above mineral water long prescribed for the nerves.

( the story )

An adults-only spa hotel in the Rhodopes, built as a Bulgarian head of state's private residence, above mineral water prescribed for the nerves.

Villa Rossa was not built as a hotel. It went up at Narechenski Bani as a private residence for the Bulgarian head of state and hosted diplomatic meetings under Todor Zhivkov, who governed the country from 1954 to 1989 — which is why the rooms are proportioned the way they are and why the setting is so private. It is now a five-star adults-only spa house in the heart of the Rhodope Mountains, with an indoor pool, a sauna, a seasonal outdoor pool, a fitness room, gardens, a restaurant and a wine cellar. The reason the resort exists at all is underfoot: Narechen's mineral water has been prescribed in Bulgaria for nervous-system and stress-related conditions longer than anyone here has been alive.

( field notes, dawn to night )

A day here

morning

The outdoor pools with mist coming off them and pines standing over the water.

midday

Into the Rhodope forest on foot, which is the other half of why the water works.

afternoon

Treatment, then sauna, then the specific heaviness that mineral water leaves in the limbs.

evening

The wine cellar, then dinner, then a silence that the building was designed to hold.

( worth underlining )

What sets it apart

Built as a private residence for Bulgaria's head of state, and used for diplomacy

Adults only — a five-star house with no children in it

Narechen's mineral water, long prescribed here for nervous-system conditions

An indoor pool and sauna, with a seasonal outdoor pool in the garden

A restaurant and wine cellar inside the old residence

Deep in the Rhodope Mountains, about forty kilometres from Plovdiv

What you can do

Mineral Water Bathing

Spa & Massage Treatments

Sauna

Fine Dining & Wine

Fitness

Rhodope Excursions

On the property

Indoor Mineral Pool

Seasonal Outdoor Pool

Sauna

Wine Cellar

Historic State Residence

Adults Only

( plan your stay )

Old water and old walls, and a nervous system that stops arguing with itself by about the third day.

Come down to the water.

best time to visit — Year-round. Summer opens the outdoor pool and the mountain paths; winter is the better argument for the mineral water.

book via hawa club →

( keep wandering )

More high in the mountains

( Rhodope Mountains )
Forest Lux Boutique Villas

book via hawa club →