Свиленград

Svilengrad is Bulgaria's town of three borders: Greece and Turkey both lie within sight, and everything in its history flows from that position on the Maritsa, where the great road to Constantinople crossed the river. It crosses still — over the magnificent bridge of Mustafa Pasha, completed in 1529 by the Ottoman school of the great Sinan: nearly three hundred metres of white stone striding the Maritsa on twenty arches, one of the longest and most beautiful Ottoman bridges in the Balkans, and pedestrian now, so it can be admired at walking pace.

The town's name means "city of silk": mulberry orchards and silkworm-rearing sustained it into living memory, a soft industry for a hard border town, and the local museum keeps the looms and cocoons of that vanished trade. In the hills nearby lies a different splendour — the beehive-domed Thracian tomb of Mezek, one of the finest in Thrace, and the medieval fortress above it; the surrounding Sakar slopes have meanwhile become one of Bulgaria's most exciting new wine regions, their old vines yielding reds of southern depth.

Modern Svilengrad lives from the crossing itself — trade, transit and entertainment for three nations — while its chitalishte, museum and festivals keep the quieter continuities. Stand mid-bridge at dusk, halfway between Europe's borders, and the town explains itself without a word.