Dimitrovgrad (Serbia)
|
Димитровград Dimitrovgrad |
|||||
 View of Dimitrovgrad |
|||||
|
|||||
| Basic data | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State : | Serbia | ||||
| Okrug : | Pirot | ||||
| Coordinates : | 43 ° 2 ' N , 22 ° 48' E | ||||
| Residents : | 6,968 (2002) | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+381) +381 10 | ||||
| Postal code : | 18320 | ||||
| License plate : | PI | ||||
| Structure and administration (status: 2007) | |||||
| Community type: | city | ||||
| Mayor : | Veselin Veličkov (DP) | ||||
| Website : | |||||
.svg)
Dimitrovgrad ( Cyrillic Димитровград ; formerly Zaribrod / Caribrod / Цариброд) is a small town and a municipality in southeast Serbia , near the border with Bulgaria .
population
At the census in 2002, around 12,000 people lived in the municipality of the same name, 7,000 of them in the city proper. Of these, 49.68% (47.08% in the city) described themselves as Bulgarians and 24.89% (25.58%) as Serbs . 12.6% (8.20%) stated that their nationality was “unknown”; 4% (6.09%) declared themselves to be Yugoslavs .
The city is next to Bosilegrad a center of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia .
history
Milestones and other archaeological finds from the Thracian and Roman times point to an earlier settlement of the city and its surroundings . In ancient times there was a Roman post office station on the strategically important Roman road Via Militaris (also called Via Diagonalis). In the Middle Ages, the place was mentioned under the Slavic name Zaribrod as a way station and crossing over the Nišava on Constantinople Street ( Zarigradski drum ).
In the Ottoman era , Zaribrod remained important as the next stop after Pirot for travelers to Istanbul. Under Süleyman I , the place is mentioned in 1521 under the name Tekvur Binari (Imperial Fountain) as a short-term residence of the Sultan. GC von den Driesch describes Zaribrod as a Palanke that was guarded by Derbendji to withstand attacks by Heiducken . After the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/78 , the Peace of San Stefano and the Berlin Congress , Zaribrod became part of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1878 and the center of an administrative district of the same name.
In the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885 , the region was affected by fighting. The city was opened on November 2 . / November 14, 1885 greg. captured by Serbian troops of the Danube Division. After the decisive battle of Slivnitsa , the city became July 12th . / November 24, 1885 greg. recaptured by the Bulgarian army. In 1888 the Tschitalischte " Christo Botew " was opened in Zaribrod , in the same year the place was connected to the Belgrade – Istanbul railway line and a Bulgarian border station was built.
In 1892 the Bulgarian Orthodox Church of Our Lady of All Saints was built with an iconostasis made of cherry wood, frescoes and icons from the Samokov Art School .
After the First World War , the city was ceded to Yugoslavia along with other areas in the west of what was then Bulgaria in the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine . In 1921 the place had 3494 inhabitants. In 1951 the place was named after the Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov . In 1953 the place had 2891 inhabitants.
traffic
The international airport Niš is about 100 km northwest of the city , closer is the Sofia airport (approx. 65 km). Construction work on the Niš – Dimitrovgrad motorway , which will continue from the exit of the Belgrade – Preševo motorway near Niš to Sofia , is in progress.
Famous people
- Slatan Dudow - Bulgarian film director and screenwriter
Web links
- History of the city. ( Memento of July 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Serbian)