Off the beaten track at the foot of the Cravec and Trapezica hills, Asenov is today a peaceful district basking in the shade of the city of the Tsars. It lies either side of the Jantra, crossed here by a little bridge. Asenov has no fewer than five interesting churches bearing witness to Bulgarian Christianity's tumultuous history, the most prominent of which is the church of the Forty Martyrs where independence was proclaimed in 1908.