The mountain Okolchitsa is sacred for each Bulgarian. It is situated in the part of Vratsa of the Balkan area, at approximately 20 km south – east from the heroic exploitation of Hristo Botev and of the members of his rebel detachment. In this place in the rocky mountain and without water, at the beginning of June 1876 they fought heroically against the Turkish army, many times outnumbering them. Not far from Okolchitsa, in the locality Yolkovitsa, on the 20th of May the voivode Hristo Botev and met his death. One of the greatest Bulgarians was killed; a man who left by will to the generations the example of his heroic life and his genius poems, reaching a height not only in Bulgaria but also in the international poetry, and with his unsurpassed journalistic plays. Most of the members of the detachment were killed. There is a rock on the place where the poet was killed, with a commemorative inscription.
The Okolchitsa peak (1048 meters) is situated in the Balkan Vratsa, in the proximity of the village Chelopek, at approximately 20 kilometers from Vratsa. In the upper part there is a monument which commemorates the revolutionary heroism of Hristo Botev – who died in 1876 for the Liberation of Bulgaria from under the ottoman domination.
The place for building up the monument was chosen in 1901 by a special commission, which also refers to the 9 years of exile of Hristo Botev. It is chosen a place which is also the closest and the most available from the last battle of the detachment in 1876.
The monument was placed in 1926 and it is a concrete steel cross. Near it there is small grassland, now known under the name of the Boteva footway. In 1947 there was decided to change the cross with a star with five corners, and in 1991, the monument comes back to its original shape.
The monument has a height of 26, 60 meters, and at its base it is the chapel “Saint George”. It is included on the list with hundreds of tourist sites for the beautiful scenery from around the monument and a rich history of the region which attracts numerous tourists and guest from the country and from abroad.
In each year, on the date of the 2nd of June, at the skirts of the monument there is a pilgrimage place at a national level at which there attended state chiefs and thousands of pilgrims. Here also ends the national tourist march on the road Botev “Kozlodui – Okolchitsa”, which took place starting with 1946, without interruption.
The Okolchitsa peak is a favorite place for the paragliding for the tourists and the locals, as well as a favorite place for the holiday weekend.