The Underground City of Rila – a Concrete Inferno, Communist Legends and Tunnels as Long as the Mountain Itself
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- август 11, 2025
High above the clouds, where Rila’s peaks pierce the sky, time seems frozen. But beneath this world of ice and rock, hidden from the eyes of hikers, lies a second world – dark, concrete, endless. The world of secret tunnels that for decades have ignited the imagination of Bulgarians and foreigners alike.
Our team, together with Bulgarian colleagues from “Top Press”, traced every legend, rumor and documented fact. What we found is a mixture of Cold War folklore and an engineering marvel.
An Underground City for the Chosen Few
According to persistent rumors, deep inside Rila there is an entire “underground city” built for the top echelon of communist Bulgaria. Bunkers 200 meters underground, with operating theaters, warehouses, dormitories and backup command centers. Designed to sustain life for months in the event of a nuclear strike, these facilities were said to be ready to shelter Todor Zhivkov and his entourage.
Stories abound of tunnels linking Rila to other strategic points in the country. Some legends point to passages beneath the saddle near “Macedonia” hut, others to invisible doors under Musala and Belmeken. Local shepherds tell of metal doors that open at night, with the hum of machinery echoing from within.
An Engineering Wonder Mistaken for a Military Secret
The reality, however, is far more complex. Between Kadiin Grob and Iliyna Canton lies a massive portal – the entrance/exit of a water tunnel, part of the “Grunchar” diversion. This diversion is a component of the colossal “Belmeken – Sestrimo – Chaira” cascade – a project started in 1964 and completed in 1999, with an installed capacity of 1600 MW, equal to TPP “Maritsa East 2” and only slightly less than the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant.
The cascade’s primary purpose is not constant electricity generation, but balancing short-term fluctuations in consumption. At night, “excess” power from the nuclear plant is used to pump water back into the Belmeken reservoir. The system of dams, hydropower plants and pumped storage plants spans 272 kilometers (73 km of which are tunnels), carrying water from Western Rila to Belmeken, passing under places like Mount Aladzha Slab, the Dry Lake, and the Belmeken sports base.
Old Soviet military maps marked these facilities, which later fueled speculation about a secret military network. “Top Press” tracked the coordinates of dozens of such portals – some still in operation, others abandoned and overgrown with moss.
Myths Born of Concrete
While battling fires in the Rila Monastery Nature Park in 2025, firefighters entered a 2.4 km tunnel – enough to spark a fresh wave of rumors. Local legends even connect the underground network to the Rila Monastery, though historians have never confirmed such a structure.
Older tales speak of tunnels linking Rila to uranium mines, of underground halls used for secret experiments, and of hidden depots for military equipment. None of these claims have been proven, yet they live on in the public imagination.
From Legend to Literature
Rila’s underground stories have not remained only in oral tradition. One of Bulgaria’s best-selling authors, Veselin Stamenov, used the myths surrounding these tunnels as the basis for his thriller Holy Blood. In it, concrete and legend merge in a dangerous survival game, where past and present collide deep within the mountain.
The Silence of the Mountain
Today, hikers walking along the trails above these tunnels hear only the wind and the distant chime of sheep bells. Yet beneath their feet flows water, spins turbines, and perhaps hides secrets that may never be officially acknowledged. Rila remains silent – as silent as the concrete built to withstand both time and human curiosity.
“Top Press” has already submitted an official request to the State Archives Agency for any documents related to the construction, purpose, and operation of the underground tunnels and facilities in Rila. The goal is to gather accurate, verifiable data, separating fact from the rumors and legends that have fascinated the public for decades.
Our investigation will not end here. Expect more – with official responses, new testimonies and further field checks. We believe that the truth about Rila’s underground world deserves to be told to the entire world, without shadows and without missing pages.
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