The state game breeding station “Rhodopi” is situated on the slopes of the beautiful western Rhodopi Mountains, only 175 km away from Sofia. The station can be reached by traveling on the “Trakia” highway and then the first-class road going through the towns of Pazardjik, Peshtera and Batak. This beautiful nature is even faster to reach, if you travel by plane to the nearest airport just outside the city of Plovdiv, which is only 80km away.

Wherever you turn your eyes they meet inexpressible beauty – vast alpine glades, colored with forest flowers, bubbling rivers and streams, natural forests of high Scots pines and spruces, white firs, beeches and aspens. During the wet season you can find mushrooms and it is not difficult to fill your baskets with whortleberries and cranberries.

Included in part of the territory of the game breeding station is the almost untouched protected area called “Dupkata” (“The Hole”), which is included in the UNESCO list of the world biosphere reserves. The diversity in the reserve is dominated by the deciduous forests of beech, aspen and stone oak and the intimidating 200 old Scots pines, spruces and fir-trees.

Of the shrubs, most common are the sumac (Cotinus coggygria), the hazel bush (Corylus avellana), the juniper, the lilac (Syringa vulgaria), and many forest berries. Due to the diversity of ecologic habitats and an increasingly southern climate, the grass-cover is incredibly colorful – including the Haberlea rhodopensis and Sideritis scardica, Filago vulgaris and Achillea clipeolata, Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) and Primula officinalis.

Almost all of the traditional forests animals of Bulgaria inhabit the territory, but the most spectacular to see are the wild goats leaping on the sheer rocks of the territory.

Subject to hunting in the Game Breeding Station “Rhodopi” are the red deer, roe deer, wild boar and wild goat, brown bear, wolf, fox, wildcat and marten. But the favorite target of local hunters is the wood grouse – an incredibly beautiful, but elusive bird. The red deer trophies are with an average weight of 8-10 kg, the roe deer trophies with a weight of 300-400 g, and the average length of the wild boar tusks is 22-24 cm. Among the best hunting achievements is a wild goat trophy awarded with a gold medal and evaluated to 110.18 CIC points. The collection is completed with wild boar trophies from the region that have been awarded with silver medals.