The Camino Bulgaria association has given out 119 certificates for completing the "Way to the Relics of St John the Baptist" route since it opened in June, Lyubomir Mechev from the association told BTA.
The first stretch starts in Malko Tarnovo, runs through the Strandzha mountains and ends in Sozopol. It covers 81 kilometres and takes about five days to walk.
Every pilgrim carries a passport that gets stamped at each stage of the journey, and at the end they receive a certificate called "Ioannia". Surveys by the organisers show walkers have ranged in age from 6 to 80, with women around 50 making up the largest group.
Pilgrims so far have come from Greece, Spain, Belgium, Croatia and Switzerland, and groups from Denmark and the UK have already signed up for next year. Mechev says one reason for the growing interest is that Camino Bulgaria is still little known, while similar pilgrim routes already exist in Spain, Italy and Croatia — so people are looking for new places to go.
"The biggest plus of our route is that it isn't commercialised. There's a real sense of calm," Mechev said.
A second stretch is due to open in May 2027, and the association is now mapping out the individual sections with local institutions and organisations. The new route also starts in Malko Tarnovo but splits off from the first near the village of Vizitsa. From there it passes through Gramatikovo, Kondolovo, Balgari and Kosti, climbs Mount Papiya in the Bulgarian part of the Strandzha and comes out near Tsarevo. It then follows the coast through Lozenets and Kiten to Primorsko, where it joins the first route.
Mechev and Hristina Jensen came up with the route after meeting each other while walking a pilgrim trail in Spain. Their project aims to build a whole network of pilgrim routes across the region, stage by stage.
The first American to walk the entire route from Malko Tarnovo to Sozopol has already completed 23 pilgrim routes around the world, and this was his first in eastern Europe. Before arriving, he spent nine days on Mount Athos in Greece, where Bulgarians urged him to visit Bulgaria. In Malko Tarnovo a local woman met him, helped him get his pilgrim passport and first stamp, and walked with him to the start of the trail.
He visited the churches in Zabernovo and Pismenovo, and in Primorsko he talked with priests about the Camino, Mount Athos and Orthodox Christianity. After Sozopol he kept walking along the coast to Burgas, then went on to Plovdiv and the Asenovgrad area. He said the markings on the Bulgarian route compare well with those on the Camino de Santiago, with signs clear enough that he never needed to use navigation. In a letter to the association, he thanked the people he had met and wrote that Bulgaria was wonderful and that he hoped to return one day.
The relics of St John the Baptist were found in 2010 during archaeological digs on St Ivan island. The first stretch of the route was officially opened in Sozopol, after a meeting in Burgas with experts from Spain, Belgium and Denmark, where officials said Bulgaria's route is on track to join the European network and work directly with the Camino de Santiago.
"Tourists turn into pilgrims, and pilgrims into tourists," said Jorge Martinez Cava, president of the Spanish Federation of Friends of the Camino de Santiago Associations and of the international federation Camino Europe Compostela.
More than 700,000 certified pilgrims and 2.5 million tourists in total walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain over the past year, and pilgrim tourism makes up 17% of the Galicia region's gross domestic product.