Denis Podorozhkin

My name is Denis Podorozhkin. I was born in 1984 and spent the first sixteen years of my life in Nalchik, in the North Caucasus, not far from Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, the spa towns of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. We went there often. I loved drinking Narzan and the other local mineral waters straight from the pump rooms. Even as a child I sensed that these springs were something precious, a gift of nature that whole towns had been built around. The treatments themselves were a different story. The baths, the cures and the sanatorium stays felt like a privilege for the few, not something for families like mine.

From 2000 to 2022 I lived in St Petersburg and worked as a software developer. From 2017 onwards I came to Bulgaria regularly, mostly for the Black Sea coast. Over the years I also visited spa towns elsewhere in Europe, including Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. Everywhere I went, in Russia, in Czechia and across Europe, mineral springs were treated the same way: as something valuable, carefully presented and worth travelling for. That is exactly what they are.

In 2022 I moved to Bulgaria, and only then did I discover what this country holds beneath its surface. I was astonished. There are hundreds of mineral springs, and hot water rises from the ground at 40, 70 and even over 100 °C. So much of it simply runs away, quite literally onto the ground, through public taps and roadside fountains, past half-empty pools and sanatoriums that have seen better days.

I kept asking myself why. My rough personal estimate is that Bulgaria uses perhaps 10–15% of what its springs could offer, both to the people who live here and to visitors. Coming from places where mineral water is treated with something close to reverence, I find that genuinely sad. Bulgaria deserves better, and so do the travellers who have never heard of Velingrad, Hisarya or Sapareva Banya.

Bulneo is my answer to that question. It is a place where I share, in several European languages, what I have found: the spa towns, the hotels, the free hot springs, the treatments, and an honest view of what each can and cannot offer. I’m a software developer, not a doctor, so I try to be clear about where the evidence is strong and where it is mostly tradition.

I hope this modest contribution helps Bulgaria reclaim its place among Europe’s great spa destinations. Its springs have deserved that place since Thracian and Roman times.