About the bath
Momin Prohod is a balneological resort of national importance. The mineral bath is part of the glorious history of the resort, known in the past as Sulu Dervent. The building was put up with great enthusiasm and volunteer labour by the local people. It is a solid single-storey building – a classic public bath with a men's and a women's section, each with bathtubs, a pool, stone basins (kurni) and changing rooms. Besides the bath, in 1931 an inhalatorium was built nearby, the only one of its kind in Bulgaria, where people breathed in the vapours to treat bronchitis.
The bath worked until early 2015; since then it has been closed and falling into ruin, while the inhalatorium is buried in rubbish and dirt. In 2001 the bath was transferred from the assets of the Sanatorium and Resort Administration (Central Administration) of the Ministry of Health to its legal successor, the newly created joint-stock company “Specialised Hospitals for Rehabilitation – National Complex” EAD.
We learn more about the history of the resort from Dr Marin Rusev's book “The Sulu Dervent Mineral Bath”, published in 1934.
This is how it describes the chronology of the buildings:
“1. In 1923 the state began surveys and the old bath was built.
In 1924 construction of the state building to house the staff began.
In 1925 and 1926 the captage was started and completed.
In 1931 the inhalatorium was built.
In 1929 a special building was put up for bottling the Sulu Dervent mineral water for sale at home and abroad.”
Construction also began on “a modern bath that will cost nearly one million leva and will have 2 pools, 10 bathtubs…
So went the development of Sulu Dervent: first a large Roman resort, then destroyed and forgotten. Then, thousands of years later, rediscovered, revived and used for inhaling, drinking and bathing,” writes Dr Rusev.
Photos 16
Photos: Bulgarian Association for Thermal Heritage. All rights belong to their authors.
More information
The water and its healing properties
The mineral water is hyperthermal – 64 °C – low in minerals (0.960 mg/l), sulphate–sodium and radon water, slightly alkaline (pH 7.7), clear, colourless, odourless and pleasant to drink.
The conditions best treated at the Momin Prohod resort are:
diseases of the musculoskeletal system (non-tuberculous arthritis and polyarthritis, non-tuberculous diseases of the spine, diseases of the bones, muscles and tendons, arthrosis, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid polyarthritis, infectious polyarthritis, conditions after rheumatic fever, osteochondropathy, toxic and occupational damage to bones, joints and tendons, osteomyelitis, tenosynovitis, conditions after injuries, vibration disease);
diseases of the lungs and upper respiratory tract and of the respiratory organs – rhinopharyngitis, sinusitis, tracheitis, bronchitis of infectious, allergic or mixed origin, recovery after pneumonia, pneumosclerosis, early forms of pulmonary emphysema and silicosis, chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, rhinitis, sinusitis;
allergic conditions;
diseases of the gastrointestinal tract – gastritis, colitis, peptic ulcers.
metabolic disorders – mild and moderate diabetes, gout and obesity
diseases of the nervous system
gynaecological conditions;
skin conditions – psoriasis outside flare-ups, parapsoriasis, neurodermatitis, seborrhoeic eczema, other chronic eczemas without pus, occupational and drug-induced dermatitis, early scleroderma and sclerotic sclerodermatitis, ichthyosis, keratoderma, pruritus, dyshidrosis, chronic urticaria;
general prevention – strengthening and hardening the body.
Treatment with the mineral water at Momin Prohod speeds up recovery, acts on antiseptic processes and on the conditions that strain the nervous system. Recent studies have confirmed scientists' forecasts of the water's beneficial effect on the immune response of the human body and its increased resistance to harmful radiation.
- Sections
- Separate men's and women's sections
- Built
- 1933
- Ownership
- SBR-NK (Specialised Hospitals for Rehabilitation – National Complex)
- Thermal Heritage register no.
- 76
- Information updated
- 02.2025
The bath's page at the Bulgarian Association for Thermal Heritage ↗