Reserve Bistrishko-Braniste located in the south of Sofia in Bulgaria and is part of the natural park Vitosha. Since 1934, the reserve is a protected area. The purpose of the protection of this place - the preservation of pine forest and grass vegetation in mountainous territory. Since 1977, UNESCO's decision-Braniste Bistrishko Reserve Biosphere.

The reserve is located in the Vitosha Mountain, the north-eastern slope of it, in the catchment area of ​​the rivers Bistrica and Janczewska. The reserve is located on the peaks Skoparnik, height 2226 m above sea level, and Gholam-hog, located at an altitude of 2277 meters above sea level. The height of the reserve range from 1430 meters to 2282 meters above sea level.

The total area of ​​the reserve is more than a thousand hectares. More than half of the territory is covered by forests, the rest of the area occupied by alpine and subalpine meadows. The wooded area is most common spruce, beech bit less, sometimes aspen, birch, and the Balkan (Rumelian) pine. The oldest trees of the reserve are between about a hundred and fifty years, the diameter of their trunks - about 130 cm. The average tree height is 25 meters, and the average age of the forest - about 110 years.

The reserve set up special hiking trails. They lead from the camp site to the villages Bistrica Aleko and Zheleznitsa. Deviate from these routes is possible only with the permission of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Environment.