Blagoevgrad is a university town about 100 km south of Sofia, home to both the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) and South-West University. The student population gives the town a livelier atmosphere than you might expect from a mid-sized Bulgarian city.
The old quarter of Varosha, with its preserved eighteenth- and nineteenth-century houses and cobbled streets, is the most appealing part of town. The Church of the Assumption sits within the quarter. The town also has a remarkable former synagogue — the Gotse Delchev Temple — whose Jewish community was protected from Nazi deportation by local citizens during the Second World War.
Blagoevgrad is the closest gateway to the Rila Monastery — the largest and most famous monastery in Bulgaria, a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded in the tenth century by St. Ivan Rilski, about 45 km away. The Pirin Mountains rise to the south, with Bulgaria's best skiing at Bansko and excellent hiking in summer through Pirin National Park.