Monyak Fortress

En un regard

Le château en bref

On a steep hill overlooking the Arda and the Studen Kladenets reservoir, east of Kardzhali, Monyak is one of the largest and highest fortresses in the Rhodopes. Built in the 11th and 12th centuries on the site of an earlier Roman castrum, it guarded the Zhelezna Vrata pass. The chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade called it "Chastel de Moniac": in 1206 it surrendered to the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders, who learnt there of the death of his brother Baldwin I, a captive of Tsar Kaloyan. Its north wall, preserved for more than 270 metres and up to eight metres high, encloses a citadel perched to the east, an octagonal tower and two cisterns. The climb is steep, but the view takes in the Arda valley as far as the fortress of Vishegrad.