Melnik

With less than 300 inhabitants, Bulgaria's smallest town - Melnik, 20 km southeast of Sandanski, is particularly known for its robust red wine, impressive houses and natural surroundings. Lied somewhere in the middle of the southwestern fold of Pirin mountain, Melnik evokes memories of a prosperous past and is unique in its countryside with sand pyramids, sandstone and limestone towers and mushrooms, vineyards and orchards. The original Revival architecture of the Melnik houses with their famous sand wine-cellars, the ruins of the old-time magnificence such as the 13th-century Boyar House, and the many churches, are why Melnik has become an architectural reserve. You can still enjoy the famous Melnik wine once traded as far as Western Europe in the numerous taverns and hotels. Moreover, the proximity to the 12th century Rozhen Monastery and the Rupite - home village and burial place of the oracle Baba Vanga, is what makes Melnik the most popular destination in southern Pirin.

During the 17th - 18th c. Melnik became a flourishing tobacco center also producing wine, whose fame spread among many European countries. The wonderful fortress-like houses with broad cellars, cut in the limestone rocks, date back from this very period.

There are steep, weirdly shaped sandstone rocks, lovely white houses perched on their slopes and a single street which leads to the finest example of the former beauty of this small town of Melnik.

Another very interesting sight to be seen is the the Kordopoulos House. Its windows are of Venetian stained glass, there are spacious rooms and salons, ornamental murals, weaves and fretwork; one can enjoy a wrought iron gate and large wine-cellar from which caravans with the famous Melnik wine once left for Salonika, Athens, Vienna, Rome, and even Marseille and Spain.