Forest Reserve Tsurna Reka
Tsurna Reka was declared a reserve in 1980. It is situated in Osogovo manuntain, in the village of Sajdenik. It covers a representative ecosystem of natural beech forests in the upper stream of Tsurna River and along its right bank. The area of the reserve is 197 hectares, 190 of which are beech forest and the rest are meadows. The average altitude is 1400 - 1700 m. The beech forest is north facing with a predominance of steep terrain. The age of the trees is about 130 years, and their height – about 30 meters.
In the reserve except for pure beech forests, are found single individuals scots pine, Siberian juniper, black alder, willow, maple, plum, etc. Grass species are represented by woodruff, fescue, woodland geranium and bracken. The forest broom is very typical for open and deforested areas.
There are many birds protected by law as the lesser spotted eagle, red kite, barn owl, eurasian green and spotted woodpecker, long-legged buzzard, peregrine falcon, golden eagle and alpine chough. Among the other species of the animal kingdom are otter, European wolf, lynx, tortoise, Alpine newt, slowworm, smooth snake, viper, and European treefrog. In the rivers grow many species of fish among which are the Balkan loach, barbel and trout.
It is about 30 km from Kyustendil to the reserve.
Do you know that:
- the church “St. George” in Kyustendil is the oldest preserved medieval church in southwestern Bulgaria.
- the International Competition for Classical Guitar “Academic Marin Goleminov" is organized annually in Kyustendil.
- Kyustendil used to be named Velevuzdion, Velbondzh, Konstantin’s bath Uludzha, Bath, Kolasia.
