Botevgrad
| Botevgrad (Ботевград) | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Sofia | ||||
| Residents : | 19,594 (December 31, 2016) | ||||
| Coordinates : | 42 ° 54 ' N , 23 ° 47' E | ||||
| Height : | 340 m | ||||
| Postal code : | 2140 | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 0723 | ||||
| License plate : | CO | ||||
| Administration (as of October 1, 2015) | |||||
| Mayor : | Ivan Gavalyugov | ||||
| Ruling party : | Non-party | ||||
Botevgrad ( Bulgarian Ботевград ) is a city in western Bulgaria that was named after Christo Botew . Until 1866 the city was called Samundschiewo (Bulgarian Самунджиево) and then until 1934 Orchanie (Bulgarian Орхание).
geography
Botevgrad is located in the district / Oblast Sofia , sixty kilometers northeast of the capital Sofia , towards Varna and Russe , and eleven kilometers west of Pravets . It is located in the Botevgrad valley basin (Bulgarian Ботевградска котловина / Botevgradska Kotlovina) on the south side of the Balkan Mountains . Botevgrad is the second largest city in Sofia Oblast after Samokov . Botevgrad is the administrative seat of the municipality of the same name Botevgrad .
A hiking trail (two to three hours) leads from the Selin district to the Rudinata mountain hut , along the Bilo rock on the western slope of the Balkan Mountains.
The development of the city was favored by its proximity to the capital Sofia as well as by its favorable strategic location on the Vitinja Pass , which is one of the few connections between northern and southern Bulgaria.
history
The first detectable settlement on this site was a Thracian settlement from the 5th millennium BC. BC, west of today's Blagoewgrad, in the Manastirischteto area, near the hop fields. Various objects were found here, which are exhibited today (2009) in the Botevgrad Museum: household ceramics, building ceramics, tools and marble slabs depicting the Thracian rider .
In the vicinity of the city, parts of a Roman milestone were found, which were erected in honor of the emperors Valentinian I , Valens and Gratian . The column probably dates from the year 375, because all three emperors ruled only in that year. Because of the proximity of the place to the Roman road, it was abandoned by the residents and moved three kilometers to the south. Here, under the protection of the forest, a new place called Selin (Bulgarian Зелин) developed. Today (2009) Selin is a residential area in Botevgrad, three kilometers from the center. The quarter lies in the middle of an extensive deciduous forest and serves the residents of Botevgrad and the surrounding area as a recreational area, climatic health resort and summer health resort.
When the Slavs settled in this region, the place became Slavic. The village of Selin belonged to the feudal estate of Sevast Ognjan, who was a respected Boljare under Tsar Ivan Shishman (ruled Veliko Tarnovo from 1371 to 1395) . Ognjan had its seat in the fortress Boschenischki Urwitsch (Bulgarian Боженишки Урвич). The ruins of the early Byzantine fortress Boschenischki Urwitsch are today 23 kilometers north of Botevgrad, three kilometers from the village of Boschenitsa . In addition to the ruins of the fortress, you can also visit a rock church and living rooms in which an inscription by Sevast Ognjan was found.
The area around Botevgrad and Pravets was one of the last foci of resistance against the Ottomans during the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria. Sevast Ognjan defended the fortress against the Ottomans for his tsar Ivan Shishman.
In the first half of the 18th century, the residents of the village of Selin relocated again, this time in a basin where today's Botevgrad is located. Where the new village Samundschiewo (Bulgarian Самунджиево) arose, there was previously only a hostel and a bakery. Samun is the Bulgarian word for loaf of bread . The village was reputedly known for the beautiful loaves of bread that were baked there.
This representation that the village of Samundschiewo was only newly created, however, contradicts information in an Ottoman register of falconers (Doganschi - see Derwendschi ) of the village of Samundschiewo from the years 1564 to 1565. After that there was already the village of Samundschiewo at this point or some of the local residents were at least busy raising falcons for the Sultan's court.
It is not known whether there was a church in the village at that time. All that is known is that there was a small Sweti Georgi ( Saint George ) chapel in the village of Samundschiewo in 1826 , as well as a monastery school in a private building. A school building was not built until twenty years later. In 1864 a clock tower was built and in 1865 the only Bulgarian church was built here, dedicated to Georgi Sofijski Nowi (also: Georgi Sofiskij Kratowski; Bulgarian Георги Софийски Нови; * 1497, † 1515), a holy martyr who was killed by the Ottomans because he refused to marry a Turkish woman and convert to Islam.
In 1866 the strategically important route from Russe (then Rustschuk) to Sofia was moved through the village. The old route previously led over the Etropole pass (Bulgarian Етрополски проход), while the new one led via Arabakonak (Bulgarian Арабаконак). In connection with the regulation of the Sofia-Pleven road, the village of Samundschiewo was given city status by order of the well-known Turkish reformer Midhat Pasha , then administrator of the Danube region in his capacity as governor ( Wali ) of the district / Vilayet Rutschuk. The new city was called Orchanie (Bulgarian Орхание) in honor of Sultan Orhan I. The use of the old name Samundschiewo for the new city of Orchanie was forbidden under threat of heavy fines. However, the residents did not adopt the new name Orchanie and instead used the Turkish word for city - Kasaba (a city without a fortress).
The city of Orchanie should protect the new route from Ruse to Sofia and accommodate travelers. The city was developed according to plan, with a checkerboard layout of streets and houses with large courtyards. The Hungarian traveler Felix Kanitz visited the city in 1871 and wrote that it is the center of about 25 villages.
The city became the center of the judicial district ( Kaza ), which included thirty villages as well as the two cities Etropole and Teteven , which had been spun off from the judicial districts Lovech and Wraza .
The residents of the city fought in the free troops of Khadji Dimitar (Bulgarian Хаджи Димитър), Panajot Chitow and Filip Totju (Bulgarian Филип Тотю) as Chetniks against Ottoman rule. In December 1870, Wasil Levski came to the city and founded a revolutionary committee. The town of Orchanie belonged to the first revolutionary district in Bulgaria founded by Levski.
Before the April uprising of 1876 , the Bulgarian population actively prepared for the uprising. The city fought against the Ottoman irregulars ( Başı Bozuk ) and experienced the cruel suppression of the uprising. At the foot of the summit Okoltschiza (Bulgarian Околчица) in the Raschow Valley, twelve kilometers northwest of Botevgrad, Christo Botew and Botev's Freischar were killed on June 2, 1876 in the battle against the Ottomans. On December 1, 1934, at the suggestion of Assen Slatarow (Bulgarian Асен Златаров), the city was renamed Botevgrad after the poet and fighter of the April uprising, Chisto Botew von Orchanie. Since then, December 1st has been the city's public holiday.
During the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/1878 , many residents of Orchanie took part in the battle against the Ottomans on the side of the Russian army as Bulgarian volunteers ( Narodno opaltschenie , Bulgarian Народно опълчение). These Bulgarian volunteer associations were led by the Russian general Nikolaj Stoletow (Bulgarian: Николай Столетов).
During this war there was long, costly fighting in the region between the Ottoman troops, who were holed up on the passes of the Balkan Mountains, and the Russian troops under the command of Josef Gurko . After the Ottoman troops were defeated in the region, the Russian army marched into the city on November 29, 1877.
At the first census in the Principality of Bulgaria in 1881, Orchanie had 2284 inhabitants.
economy
The training facility of the large Bulgarian telecommunications company Balgarska Telekomunikazionna Kompanja (Bulgarian Българска телекомуникационна компания, BTK) is located in the Selin area, north of Botevgrad . It is a seven-storey building with classrooms and accommodation for 120 trainee telecommunications technicians. From here it is five kilometers to the city center and less than two kilometers to the Hemus motorway ( list of highways in Bulgaria ).
Until 1999 there was a large car plant in Botevgrad for the production of buses of the Chavdar brand (Bulgarian Чавдар). It was founded in 1924 by Ratscho Jambow as a metal workshop and later developed into a successful factory for the manufacture of buses. The bodies were manufactured here, the chassis were imported from abroad. Until 1999, the Chavdar plant was the city's largest employer.
education
In addition to a technical high school, Botevgrad has had the International Business School Botevgrad (IBS, Bulgarian Международно висше бизнес училище) since 1991 . It is a Bulgarian-Dutch college that is the successor to the College of Economics and Business Administration (Bulgarian Колежа по икономика и бизнесадминистрация). The IBS is a branch of the City University of Seattle and has branches in neighboring Prawez and Sofia.
Attractions
The clock tower on the central square of Botevgrad is a symbol of the city. It was built from 1862 to 1864. The name of the architect is unknown. The builder was Wuno Markow from the village of Wratschesch. The original parts of the clock mechanism are kept in the museum. The current watch was made by watchmakers from Etara (Bulgarian Етъра). The parts for this were imported from abroad.
The clock tower of Botevgrad is in the list of the 100 national tourist objects listed Bulgaria, by the Bulgarian Tourism was created. The stage stamp for object number 81 is in the city's municipal administration.
In the vicinity of Botevgrad there is the village of Skrawena , in which there are three other sights of national importance: the ossuary with the bones of the dead of Botev's Freischar, the monastery of Sv. Nikolaj and the Sweto Preobraschenie Monastery .
There is a city historical museum in Botevgrad, the Church of Sv. Wasnesenie from 1864 and the Tschitalischte from 1883. There are also many monuments: For Christo Botew, for the fallen Russian soldiers of the Russo-Turkish war, for the unknown soldier, for Baba Kojna, for the poet Stamen Pantschew (Bulgarian Стамен Панчев).
sons and daughters of the town
- Marian Christow (* 1973), football player
