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Belene Location
Belene is located in the province of Pleven – 60 km north-east of the provincial center, Pleven. Travel distance by car to Belene from: Sofia – 215 km, Plovdiv – 350 km, Varna – 275 km, Burgas – 330 km, Ruse – 109 km. You can find places to eat and stay in Belene here
Our suggestions for places to visit in Belene
This is our selection of the 11 most important and attractive sites in Belene and the nearby islands. These are indicated by the white dots on the map below. You can visit them virtually, by clicking on the dots in the interactive map, or visit them in person. Eight of the sites are connected to the history of the Belene camp, and three are local landmarks. When selecting each of the white dots, you will get detailed and visually appealing information about each site. The numbering of the sites is thematic. They can be viewed virtually or visited in person in a different order.
You can organize your visit yourselves.
Our recommendation for visiting the island is to ask for assistance from a local guide. There is a working prison located on Persin Island and in order to visit it, you need to seek permission from the Ministry of Justice. The guide will organize the necessary permissions on your behalf. They will also organize a boat trip to other places on the nearby islands. To book a tour with a guide, click on the “Book a tour” button below.
Our tours
For your convenience, together with the local guides we have developed three tours and combinations between them that include almost all the featured sites. You can make your selection based on your interests and the time you will have available. You will pay the fee for your visit directly to your guide. The Sofia Platform Foundation will not receive any funds from your visit to Belene.
Short Tour
The short tour will take you to the main sites related to the history of the Belene labor camp (Camp sites 1, 2 and 3). The tour will also introduce you to part of the Persina Nature Park and its incredible biodiversity as well as The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic church, which was built in 1860. The tour will take about 2 – 2.5 hours. It starts from the Catholic church, where there is parking available and a drinking water fountain. To see the full itinerary, please click on the Short tour button below. If you want to find out more information about the sites featured in this tour, please click on the white dots on the interactive map.
Price: BGN 30 per person (free for children under 10)
Long Tour
The long tour builds on the short tour and includes two additional stops – the Dimum ancient Roman customs house and the so-called Hooligan Barracks from the Belene camp system. Тhe tour will take 3 to 4 hours. It starts from the Catholic church, where there is parking available and a drinking water fountain. To see the full itinerary, please click on the Long tour button below. If you want to find out more information about the sites featured in this tour, please click on the white dots on the interactive map.
Price: 30 lv per person (free for children under the age of 10)
Boat tour
This tour will allow you to experience some of the Danube islands around Belene by boat. The tour includes the Magarets and Persina Islands which are part of the Persina Nature Park and the former labor camp. The tour will take 1 to 2 hours. It starts from the beach in front of the Prestige Hotel. Please note that visitors below the age of 18 need to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or a teacher. To see the full itinerary, please click on the Boat tour button below. If you want to find out more information about the sites featured in this tour, please click on the white dots on the interactive map.
Price: 120 lv per boat (one boat accommodates up to 3 persons, in addition to the captain)
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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 regional 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
42 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.
Todor Anastasov
7 months and 1 week in the Belene camp
Offence: an attempt to escape outside Bulgaria
Todor Anastasov (1932-2023) was born on September 23, 1932 in Pleven in the family of an officer in the Bulgarian King’s army. After 1944, his family was forcibly resettled to Botevgrad. In November 1951, together with two friends of his, he made an unsuccessful attempt to leave Bulgaria. Because this was forbidden at the time, he was arrested and sent to Belene for two years, without trial or sentence. After Stalin’s death in August 1953, the camp was closed and Todor served only 7 months of his sentence. After his release from Belene, he was able to enroll in a university and graduate with a degree in physics in 1960. He worked as a teacher in Pernik, then at a research laboratory, and in 1963 he became a research associate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. After the fall of the communist regime, Todor Anastasov was the chairman of the Union of the Repressed by Communism in Bulgaria.
Todor passed away in late December 2023 at the age of 91.
Todor passed away in late December 2023 at the age of 91.
Velichko Velev
3 years in the Belene camp
Offence: participant in the anti-communist resistance
Velichko Velev was born on March 18, 1933 in Boyana, Sofia. His father’s restaurant was expropriated at the onset of communism, along with all the family’s property and assets. His father narrowly escaped execution, and the family lived in a tent in their own yard.
As a student, Velichko actively supported the Goryani movement, an armed resistance movement against the communist regime, and organized armed student resistance groups. Velichko was arrested in April 1951 and over the course of six months he was subjected to systemic beatings, starvation and torture.
In very poor physical condition, he was sent to the Belene labor camp without a sentence. Velichko was interned in Belene from October 1951 until September 1953.
Tsvetko Georgiev
3 years in camp and prisons
Offence: Agrarian, member of the opposition
Цветко Георгиев е роден на 26.02.1935 г. в с. Потоп, общ. Елин Пелин. Баща му е убит при престрелка с комунисти в Македония, а семейството му е обявено за „кулаци“. Цветко се включва в опозиционна организация, заради което е арестуван и съден за „въоръжена борба против народната власт“. Исканата присъда е смърт, но накрая на процеса Цветко получава 12 години затвор. Въдворен в Белене през октомври 1953 г., Цветко остава там до май 1955 г., когато е преместен в затвора-болница в Кюстендил, защото е болен от туберкулоза. После го местят в затвора в Пазарджик, откъдето е освободен през юли 1956 г. След освобождаването си Цветко е принуден да работи тежък физически труд, работи в мини и пещи в Кърджали, Перник, Горна Оряховица. След 1989-а година е активист във възстановения БЗНС „Никола Петков“ и е съветник на неговия лидер. Заместник-председател е на съюза на репресираните.
Start here: The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary catholic church/Shrine of Eugene Bosilkov
Belene is home to one of the largest catholic communities in Bulgaria. The church is the oldest building in Belene – it was built in 1860. It also serves as a shrine to Monseigneur Eugene Bosilkov, who was killed by the communist authorities in 1952, along with Father Pavel Dzhidzhov, Father Kamen Vichev and Father Josaphat Shishkov.
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Site 1 of Belene Camp
Two main camp sites existed during all periods of the existence of the camp (1949-1987) – Site 1 and Site 2. Site 1 is the closest to the bridge between the town of Belene and Persin island. It was used to house the people interned in the camp. Its construction began in July 1949 and initially it consisted of barracks and dug-outs for about 300 people. By 1952, approximately 2,000 people were housed there.
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Site 3 of Belene Camp – Dairy Farm
The internees were forced to perform hard manual labor on a daily basis.
This is the location of what was known as Site 3, where a number of ox and cow sheds were built in early 1952. Pigs, sheep and chickens were kept elsewhere around the camp. Livestock farming was considered light work, with a few internees on a lighter regime engaged in it. The majority of internees were engaged in logging, dike construction, and performed other hard manual labor. Because of the scarcity and poor quality of tools, this labor was primitive. Food was insufficient, the working day lasted up to 15-16 hours, and the daily work quota was highly inflated. All this quickly led to the complete exhaustion of the internee.
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Site 2 of Belene Camp - best preserved part (3D)
Site 2, along with Site 1, is one of two sites within the Belene camp that existed throughout all periods of the functioning of the camp. It is situated 12 km away from the town and is surrounded by marshes. In the peak periods of the camp, it housed several thousand internees at a time. Site 2 is where “the sworn enemies” of the communist regime were concentrated – former ministers, army generals, members of the opposition parties, doctors and aristocrats. Together with them were thousands of Bulgarian landowners who refused to take part collectivization.
*Nowadays, Site 2 has the remains of buildings from a later phase of the camp. In the video, you will see these remains as well as a virtual reconstruction of the original buildings from the late 1940s and 1950s.
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*Nowadays, Site 2 has the remains of buildings from a later phase of the camp. In the video, you will see these remains as well as a virtual reconstruction of the original buildings from the late 1940s and 1950s.
Hooligan Barracks (3D)
The Hooligan Barracks were cattle sheds located close to Site 2. It was there that 1,700 “hooligans” were sent at the beginning of 1958, following a large-scale action designed to demonstrate the strength of the regime over both its internal enemies and its functionaries. The totalitarian regime defined as hooligans those young people who liked Western music, clothes and way of life. Among the internees at the so-called Hooligan Site were many boys and girls under the age of 18.
*In the video, you will see the current state of the Hooligan Barracks along with a virtual reconstruction of the original appearance of the buildings in the 1950s.
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*In the video, you will see the current state of the Hooligan Barracks along with a virtual reconstruction of the original appearance of the buildings in the 1950s.
Predela Island – Cemetery
In 1951, about 2 years after the establishment of the Belene camp, the communist authorities prohibited the transfer of the bodies of the deceased internees to their relatives. Until the end of 1953 deceased internees were buried on Magaretsa island. Predela island was designated as the site of the secret prison cemetery in 1954. The bodies of murdered and deceased internees from the Lovech camp were also buried there. The camp slang, with tragic irony, began to call Predela island “Site Six”.
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Persina Nature Park
The story of Belene doesn’t begin and end with the labor camp. The Persina Nature Park is located here, and it is the home of hundreds of birds, among which we find the Dalmatian pelican. Against the backdrop of the setting sun and the pink Danube, the nature park offers a magical view.
The nature park was established as a protected zone in 2000 and includes the Persin Island, all other Bulgarian islands in this part of the Danube, as well as parts of the Svishtov-Belene valley. The park covers 217 km² and is of great importance for protecting the biodiversity along the Danube.
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Roman customs house Dimum
Belene has a centuries-long history. The ancient settlement was likely established around the end of 1st century BC – the beginning of the 1st century AD. From that time there are also records of the existence of a Roman customs house, Dimum. The name probably comes from the Thracian tribe "dimenzi" who inhabited the region.
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Shturetsa Island (Site 4) Women's Camp
Between 1951 and 1953, women without trial and sentence and without having committed crimes were forcibly sent to the island. This is the so-called Site 4 of the Belene camp. After this period, women were sent to the Persin island, along with the men.
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Magaretsa Island – Cemetery
In 1951, about two years after the establishment of the Belene camp, the communist authorities prohibited the transfer of the bodies of the dead to their relatives. Until the end of 1953, deceased internees were buried on Magaretsa Island and then on Predela Island.
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