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Book a Tour
To learn more about the different tours, visit the page Belene Tour
In order to book your visit, please complete the short form on this page at least one week before your visit. Blacked-out dates in the calendar indicate that there are no guides available. The price of the tour will be calculated based on your selected parameters and will be displayed. When you complete the form and press the “Book” button below, your information will be sent to your selected guide. They will get in touch with you to confirm the next steps regarding your visit. The guide will secure the visitor passes issued by the Ministry of Justice that are required for visits to Persin Island and will also arrange appropriate transport. All payments are made to the guide directly by card or in cash upon your visit. The Sofia Platform Foundation will not receive any funds from your visit to Belene.
Information about the guides
The guides who will welcome the group are members of the local community. They are keen to promote their town and its beautiful natural surroundings. They believe it is important to preserve and pass on the memories of the bad and the good that has happened here. The guides are independent of the Sofia Platform Foundation, which maintains this website.
Mihail Marinov
Mihail is the chairperson of the Belene Island Foundation; he has been working to preserve the memory of the camp since 2014. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
Ivelin Kyurchev
Ivelin is a boat captain with extensive knowledge of the islands around Belene and the camp. He leads groups by land and on water. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
Martina Savova
Martina is an experienced local guide and organizer with a passion for history. She offers tours in Bulgarian and English.
Mihail Marinov
Mihail is the chairperson of the Belene Island Foundation; he has been working to preserve the memory of the camp since 2014. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
Ivelin Kyurchev
Ivelin is a boat captain with extensive knowledge of the islands around Belene and the camp. He leads groups by land and on water. He offers tours in Bulgarian.
Martina Savova
Martina is an experienced local guide and organizer with a passion for history. She offers tours in Bulgarian and English.
Booking form
(All fields are mandatory.)
Coming soon
Coming in June – your opportunity to visit Belene and the site of the camp by selecting your tour guide and booking a date for your visit in advance.
Tsvetana Dzhermanova
4 years in labor camps
Offence: anarchist
Tsvetana Dzhermanova (1928-2024) was born on 20 March 1928. Tsvetana attended the primary school in the village of Leskovets and completed her middle school studies in the village of Batanovtsi.
She became interested in the ideas of anarchism in 1946. In 1948, she was arrested in a drive against
anarchists in Bulgaria and was sent to the forced labor camp in the village of Bosna, near the town of
Silistra. In December 1951, she was transferred to the women’s section of the Belene camp
(Shturcheto camp), where she remained until April 1952.
After her release from the camps, she was resettled a number of times. Tsvetana Dzhermanova passed away in 2024 at the age of 94.
Nikola Daskalov
8 months in the Belene camp
Offence: son of a provincial governor in the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Nikola Daskalov was born on 08 September 1934. His father, Dimitar Daskalov, was a provincial governor of Plovdiv.
Following the communists’ coming to power, Nikola’s father was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death.
He was executed by firing squad on 10 February 1945. Nikola and his mother were resettled away from Sofia. Later on, Nikola was sent to the Belene camp.
Kolyo Vutev
40 days in the Lovech camp
Offence: hooligan, son of a member of the opposition
Kolyo Vutev (1940-2022) was a wrestler and a wrestling coach), born on September 10, 1940, in the village of Toros, near Lukovit. He was interned, without trial or sentence, when he was only 18 years old, in the labor camp near Lovech, which was also known as Sunny Beach. The reason for his internment was his unruly nature for which he was considered a hooligan. It is likely that contributing factors for his internment were that, in the words of Kolyo himself, his father opposed the expropriation of the villagers’ property and the formation of the cooperative labor agricultural farms, while his grandfather had been a mayor of the village. Kolyo Vutev passed away in 2022 at the age of 82.
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Booking confirmation
Your reservation has been successfully submitted. You will receive confirmation at your email [EMAIL]. Your guide will receive an e-mail notification of this booking, after which they will get in touch with you and discuss all the details of your visit.
