The Rose Garden of Europe

Where the Best Rose Perfume Comes From

If you love the finest perfume, *attar of roses*, you will likely find the name **Kasanlik** on the bottle.

But most people, especially women who adore this fragrance, do not often think about where Kasanlik is located. It could be in Germany, France, or Italy, and they wouldn’t really care.

In fact, Kasanlik is a small town in Bulgaria, on the Plain of Thrace, close to the Balkans. The plain is flat, and the mountains around it rise steeply. The land is mostly flat with valleys that look like dried-up lake beds, surrounded by hills. This landscape is similar across hundreds of miles Coastal Bulgaria Tours.

The Thracian Plain and its Roses

Kasanlik and the Rose Fields

A large part of the Thracian plain is dedicated to growing roses. In the area around Kasanlik, there are 173 villages that focus entirely on rose farming. Instead of growing crops like wheat, rye, or raising animals, the fields are filled with roses. This region is known as the largest rose garden in the world, stretching 80 miles long.

The landscape is covered with roses, and the air is filled with their sweet scent. While the soil might not be especially rich, it has a unique quality, much like the soil of the Champagne region in France, which is perfect for growing grapes. This special soil helps produce roses that create the best fragrance.