Walking along the old Roman road, which enters Lovech trough the so-called “Broken” rock, it is easy to understand why Lovech is called the Town of Lilacs.

The Covered Bridge

In the very center of Lovech is the famous Covered Bridge – the only one on the Balkans. This masterpiece of Bulgarian architecture was built in 1872 -1874 by Master Kolio Ficheto. During the Ottoman times, Midhad Pasha asked the master to build “something original”- a bridge over the Lovech open market and at the same time to join the two parts of the town that were divided by the river Osam.The genius builder studied the terrain on his own, he prepared the materials and came up with a special design. It was built without nails and joints, without estimation means, without surveyors level and without cement.

The Lovech Bridge had small shops under one roof. The builder wanted people to feel that they are on a real street. There were 64 shops inside it. The bridge was burned out in 1925, but was rebuilt in 1931 again.

Today the new one is also wooden and covered. It connects the new and the old part of the town and is full of many souvenir shops, a cafe, and a pastry shop.