Gruevo is a village in Momchilgrad Municipality,

Kardzhali Province Kardzhali Province () is a province of southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece with the Greek regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope, and Evros to the south and east. It is 3209.1 km2 in area. Its main city is Kardzhali. It is Bulgaria's sout ...

, southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. As of 2021, the population stands at 591 residents, of which 303 are male, and 288 are female, with around 61% being from the age of 15 – 64 years old.

Landmarks

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
Structure

Located about northeast of Gruevo,

Perperikon Perperikon (), also Perpericum, is an ancient Thracian city located in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains, 15 km northeast of the present-day town of Kardzhali, Bulgaria on a 470 m high rocky hill, which is thought to have been a sacred plac ...

is a medieval structure that is thought to have served as a

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

sanctuary for the Roman god Dionysus. This site is included among the 100 National Tourist Sites.

Orlovi Skali

The Thracian sanctuary known as Orlovi Skali is approximately west of Gruevo, close to the neighboring village of

Ardino Ardino (, formerly ) is a town in southern Bulgaria, in the Rhodope Mountains. It is located in Kardzhali Province and it is also close to Smolyan. It is famous for its textile industry. It has a machine-building factory and a tobacco manufactu ...

. This site features 97 carved rock niches in the cliffs, which were used to place

votive offering A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

s by the cult of the dead.

The Stone Mushrooms

Nearby, around north of Gruevo, near the village of Beli Plast, are the Stone Mushrooms. These natural formations rise to heights of and are created from volcanic

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture (geology), texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained matri ...

tuffs. Their pink hue is due to the mineral kloinoptilolit, while blue and black spots are from

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

nodules, and greenish tones come from

celadonite Celadonite is a mica group mineral, a phyllosilicate of potassium, iron in both oxidation states, aluminium and hydroxide with formula . It crystallizes in the monoclinic system and usually forms massive aggregates of prismatic crystallites or, ...

. The area was listed as a natural phenomenon in 1974.

Healing Fountain

In the region between Gruevo and neighboring village Letovnik, there is a mountain peak referred to locally as Dambala. This spot, located in a

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

, this peak features a high rock cliff and a fountain with several spouts at its base. It is believed that at midnight on May 5th, the water from this fountain gains healing properties and is thought to cure various diseases.

References