History
The medieval fortress of Urvich is located in the Pancharevo gorge (on the land where the village of Pancharevo is today ) by the Iskar river, which divides Plana mountain from the very west end of Sredna Gora mountain - the Lozen mountain. It's located on Lozen's hill Sredobardie, on a crag enclosed from three sides by the Iskar river.
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The historical information (construction of the walls, other remains) shows that the fortress was built during the XIII century in the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
Preserved today are parts of the outside wall with a height up to 6 m. and parts of the walls of the inner court church "St. Ilia".
There are two versions regarding the origin of the name. According to the first one, the fortress was named after the name of the local boyar - Urvich. The other one says, that the name follows the situation - from "urva" (an old bulgarian word meaning precipice).
The first records about the fortress are given by Paisii Hilendarski in his "History". Emphasized is the role that Urvich played in the defence of the Second Bulgarian Empire. A legend says that in this location were the last battles of Tsar Ivan Shishman, called by the local habitants Tsar Jasen. This name was given also to the panoramic road at the foot of the mountain Vitosha (Tsar Jasen's road) - from the village Boyana, through Dragalevtsi and Bistritsa, towards Pancharevo, which assured the permanent connection between the fortresses Urvich and Bistritsa and Batil-Boyana, which are also situated at the foot of Vitosha mountain. According to the legends thanks to the fact, that it is surrounded from three sides by the Iskar river, the fortress withstood the last siege for a long time, until the day when a local woman, named Vedena in an attempt to save her child's life, revealed the location of the secret entrance of Urvich. The people damned the betrayer and she petrified. Today if the traveller looks towards the left bank of Vedena river, they will see a rock shape, which looks like a figure of a woman hugging a kid. This rock structure is named "Starchikov kamak".
Urvich is a part of the so called "Urvich fortress complex", which also includes the St. Nikola-Letni monastery and the Kokaliane monastery.
It is supposed, that down the Iskar river there was a series of fortresses and fortified observation points, which communicated using visual signaling. The ruins of some of them can be found today - except for Urvich, also "The European Stronghold" (called after a peak of the same name) and "Ravulsko Strenghold" (situated on the very peak "The Big Ravulia" - 1019 m.)
Urvich is also closely connected with the dawn of the touristic movement in Bulgaria. In 1889, during an excursion to the fortress, Aleko Konstantinov together with a group of friends, founded the first bulgarian tourist club - "Urvich Club".
Legends
Legend about the betrayal of Urvich
The inhabitants of the whole region built the stone fortress over the steep precipice. The Turks put it under a long siege, but without success. The pasha was under pressure from the Sultan to conquer the fortress, because this would leave a free path to Sofia.
One day, a woman from Bistritsa village was pasturing her flock of sheep and looking proudly at the fortress. She, like her fellow-villagers also worked for a long time on the construction of the walls and knew the secret passage, which the defenders were using during the night to deliver fresh water and food. All of the builders took an oath not to reveal the secret passage, even if put to torture.
The woman was hugging a baby, which started to cry. At this moment the pasha was near by, walking round and looking over the fortress which caused him so many problems. Hearing the baby's cry he noticed the shepherdess. They greeted each other and the pasha asked:
- Don't be scared, i'm not going to treat you bad, if you tell me the truth - did you work on the construction of the fortress walls?
- Yes, I did, everyone did it.
- Show me then, where is the secret passage, which they use for supplies.
The woman was stressed and horrified, thinking about the heavy oath that she had given.
- If you don't tell me, I will throw you both in the precipice - threatened her the pasha.br />
- I don't know, I can't say, I'm under an oath - sobbed the woman.
- You don't know, you don't want, you're under an oath! - started to yell violently the pasha and ordered the troops to throw the mother and the baby in the precipice.
- Stop! I'll tell! God damn me! - She cried desperately and pointed to a rock, which was hiding the door to the secret passage.
The pasha ordered the troops to release the woman and they rushed towards the troops camp.
Vedena, the shepherdess, was still hugging her baby and praying to the God to forgive her for the sin she did to save her baby's life. She did't sleep the whole night and in the morning heard screams and rumpus from the fortress.
The army of the bulgarian tsar, the defenders of Urvich, noticed in time, that something was wrong and managed to abandon the fortress during the night and escape from the siege. They moved up to the steep track towards the "Archangel Michael" monastery and further towards the village of Samokov and the "Dospei" stronghold, known later also as "Tsar Shishman stronghold" and the near peak - "Shishmanitsa", where is said that Tsar Ivan Shishman died. The turks took and demolished the Urvich fortress and only the ruins remained. The traitress Vedena and her baby petrified on the very bank of the river, which the locals started to name also Vedena's river.
In the Bistritsa village, which today is a quarter of Sofia, the people today still recount different versions of this legend. According to this version, the defenders already suspected something bad was going to happen - because the turks had stopped attaking the fortress a few days earlier. The tsar's scouts, which were spying on the turks, saw the pasha talking to Vedena, pointing at the secret passage door and so began to suspect a betrayal. They returned immediately to the fortress and reported this to the tsar. He called the boyars and told them:
- we will not be able to hold the fortress much longer, because someone has betrayed the secret passage entry. If we pawl the door, we will manage to hold Urvich for a few more days, but after that we'll all die of thirst. It's better to abandon the fortress and try to save the army. For that reason, we'll sneak in the dark, retreat to Samokov and fight the turks there.
The bolyars agreed. They took and digged in the state treasure under in the rock, under the "Gradishte", after that turned aside part of the river stream. The river overflowed the hidden place and covered all off the traces. After that the tsar and all the defenders abandoned the fortress and disappeared in an unknown direction. There were no further battles anymore in this area. It is possible, that the turks caught them up in the mountain, killed all of them and conquered the rest of Bulgaria afterwards.
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Посетете
Крепостта Урвич се намира на 15 км от София, на 8 км южно от кв. Кокаляне и на 6 км северно от с. Долни Пасарел. Най-удобният транспорт е градският автобус № 3, тръгващ от автогарата в кв. Гео Милев. Слиза се на спирка "Трудовак" (при Паметника на трудовака), слиза се по стръмна пътека до река „Искър”, тръгва се налява, пресича се реката и по малка, но добре очертана пътека се стига до постройка, изглеждаща като крепост. Това, обаче не е крепостта, а частен дом със забранен достъп, не особено приятелски настроена охрана и кучета. Тази сграда се заобикаля отляво и се достига до частично запазена кула и оригиналната крепостна стена. Наблизо са и руините на църквата „Св. Илия”. Ако се продължи още нагоре се стига до старичина скала, за която легендата твърди, че оттам е хвърлена жената на цар Иван Шишман.
