Vrazhite dupki

Vrazhite Dupki is not visible from the Lakatnik railway station. It is a rocky ridge located in the valley of the Probojnitsa River, a tributary of the Iskar River. The rock wall is about a kilometer long and faces south. A nice path runs under the rocks. Climbing tours sometimes start directly from it, and in others no more than 15 meters from it. The height of the rock wall is about 20 meters. There are many holes and caves in the rocks, forming a real labyrinth.

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  This mysterious place is connected with a legend about the Valchan voivode, about his stay in these caves and about a hidden unprecedented treasure. The most ardent treasure hunters believe that somewhere inside is buried a treasure consisting of 9 golden buckets, tall as a human height. The treasure consists of money robbed by Turks. The storytellers swear that everything is true. The main heroine in the legend is the beautiful and really existed Rada Robova from Stremleko - a hamlet near Zanoge village. Rada grazed her goats around Vrazhite dupki. Her brother had made a loom in one of the caves and she could weave when she had time. That's how the outlaws of Valchan found her. She was not afraid of them either, and they liked that. They explained to her that they would stay for a few weeks and agreed that she would bring them food, they also gave her money. Rada began to bring them food, and they carved a maiden with a horse and coins into the wall of one of the caves, a figure that many people later saw. When she brought the food, Rada kept looking to meet Vulchan's gaze. Once she found the outlaws stacking piles of money. They told her that the money was for the liberation of Bulgaria and not to share what she had seen with anyone. But Rada told her brother. He made her put a poisonous herb (hemlock) in the food so that they would take the money from the outlaws. Rada relented. When she brought the poisoned food, she did not look Valchan in the eye and it immediately became clear to him what was happening. He let her go and gave the food to the dog. The animal died a little later. The next day Rada brought food again, as if nothing had happened. But Valchan cut off her head - he placed her body in the cave among the gold coins, and the head on a treasure chest. So with the girl's death, the place became cursed - Rada was to guard it. Whoever found the money there was to stay - to be the new guardian of the estate or to lose a young man of his family. The outlaws walled up the cave and left. The legend has its continuation. It so happened that while looking for his lost goat a boy from Gubislav hamlet saw the gold inside through a small opening in the rocks, illuminated by a thin ray of sunlight. So people came to know about the treasure and started taking from it. But the curse came true and several people from the village suffered. Then they decided to take some money when they need, but then to return it - this was how they protected themselves from the curse. But two people could not return the money and went crazy. Then their neighbours repaid ‘their debt’. After this the elderly people gave advice to wall up and fill up the hole and so the locals stopped being tempted by the treasure. Since then, the gold of the Valchan voivode has been hidden in the caves and no one knows where it is.