Lisitsite Rope Bridge

Rope bridge "Lisicite" Boris Kirov (Atlas Obscura User)

During the 1950s, Bulgaria was under socialist rule. At the time, the party designed and built many of the country’s dams and bridges for defense and to improve the quality of life in the country’s high mountainous regions.

Around this time, in the mid-1950s, construction began on a dam called Studen Kladenets (“cold well”). As the dam’s reservoir filled, a small bridge was needed to connect the small village of Lisitsite.

At first, a few smaller bridges and ferries connected the village with the world, but all of them were demolished. In 1975, the country’s longest suspension bridge was built. Today, the suspension bridge is 853 feet long.

Fun fact: Lisitsite translates to “the foxes” because the village is hidden deep in the mountains like a fox in its den.

Know Before You Go

Another small village, Shiroko pole, is the easiest access point to the bridge. You can follow a path or take a railcar to Lisicite's small station from there, then cross the rail tracks and continue your way south, after a few minutes you will reach the bridge.