Bansko

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Bansko (Банско)
Bansko coat of arms
Bansko (Bulgaria)
Bansko
Bansko
Basic data
State : BulgariaBulgaria Bulgaria
Oblast : Blagoevgrad
Residents : 8868  (December 31, 2016)
Coordinates : 41 ° 50 '  N , 23 ° 29'  E Coordinates: 41 ° 50 '8 "  N , 23 ° 29' 13"  E
Height : 871 m
Postal code : 2770
Telephone code : (+359) 0749
License plate : E.
administration
Mayor : Georgi Ikonomov
Ruling party : GERB
Website : www.bansko.bg

Bansko [ ˈbansko ] ( Bulgarian Банско ) is a city in southwestern Bulgaria . It is located in Blagoevgrad Oblast near the city of Razlog .

Location and traffic

Bansko is located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains , not far from the national park of the same name in the valley of the Mesta River . The city is approx. 160 km from Sofia and approx. 220 km from Thessaloniki.

Bansko is a stop on the narrow-gauge Rhodope Railway from Septemwri to Dobrinishte , also known as the "Rhaetian Railway of the Balkans". There are train connections (change in Septemwri) to Sofia , Plovdiv and Burgas . There are bus connections to Sofia, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad , Razlog and Goze Deltschew .

Community structure

Location of the municipality of Bansko in Blagoevgrad Oblast

The population of the municipality of Bansko (Bulgarian Община Банско) is 13,556 inhabitants (as of March 15, 2009). In addition to the city of Bansko, it also includes the following places:

history

The Trinity Church with the clock-bell tower

During the time of the Bulgarian national revival , Bansko was one of the cultural centers. Above all, the Bansko Art School was known for its wood carving and icon painting. In the course of the Tanzimat reforms of 1833, a Bulgarian association was formed, from which the Bulgarian municipality of Bansko emerged in 1850 . They organized and financed the construction of the Holy Trinity Church (Bulgarian Света Троица), which was consecrated in 1837; the first monastery school , opened in 1838 and secular from 1847. The community also regulated the local violence in Bansko itself. In 1850, with their support, the bell tower of the Trinity Church was built, in which a clockwork was installed in 1865.

In the struggle for a Bulgarian church independent of the Greek ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, the Greek bishops were expelled several times in the 1830s and the sending of a Bulgarian bishop was demanded.

In 1876 the residents of Bansko took part in the April uprising and in the autumn of 1878, when it became known that after the Russo-Turkish War and the subsequent Berlin Congress, the region was to remain in the Ottoman Empire, they participated in the Kresna-Raslog uprising . In 1894 a Tschitalischte (a kind of culture house) was founded. In 1896 Goze Deltschew Bansko built as the center of the BMARK . In 1903, Bansko was one of the centers of the Ilinden-Preobraschenie uprising , which was directed against the Ottoman-Turkish supremacy.

The city was liberated on October 5, 1912 in the course of the First Balkan War from the joint Tscheta ( company ) of Jonko Wapzarow , Chirsto Tschernopeew , Pejo Jaworow and Lasar Kolchagow of the Macedonia-Adrianople Volunteer Corps in the Bulgarian army . Assen Todorow was elected as the first mayor. In the following time the region was a bastion of the VMRO (a renaming of the BMARK after a split).

The city is namesake for Bansko Peak , a mountain on Livingston Island in Antarctica.

Cityscape

The thoroughfare and the train station are on the northern edge of the city, which is divided by a stream coming from the mountains from the south into the center of the village in the east and a new district in the west. In the old part of the village, the atmosphere from the time of the Bulgarian Revival was preserved. Numerous restored houses from the 18th and 19th centuries have been preserved here. Some of them were converted into pensions and restaurants. Larger hotels, restaurants and shops for tourists characterize the adjoining city district to the south, which extends up to the end of the valley.

Trinity Church

Main portal on the west side of the Trinity Church

The most important building is the Trinity Church ( Sweti Troica ) in the old town center, which was completed in 1850. The planning of the three-aisled hall church had to follow the instructions of the Turks, according to which church buildings were not allowed to exceed a certain height and size. In order to keep the prayer room as spacious as possible, the church was partly built into the ground, as is common practice, so that a few steps always lead down from the entrances into the church. The walls and the almost floor-to-ceiling iconostasis are beautifully painted. The three portals on the west, north and south walls bear old Slavic donor inscriptions. The inscriptions in the north and west are dated to the founding year 1837. The churchyard is surrounded by a three-meter high defensive wall made of reading stones.

A founding legend explains why the church was able to achieve such dimensions despite the strict Turkish restrictions. First, an icon and an old cross were buried in the place intended for the church. The Bulgarians told the representatives of the Turkish licensing authority that an icon had appeared in an old woman's dream and an icon was actually found in the ground at this place. The Turks, convinced of the sanctity of the square, issued the building permit. The contractually stipulated limit had been shifted an imperceptible bit to the outside by the workers every night. After the desired size of the entire complex had been reached, the surrounding wall was first built, and so the church was hidden from the Turks for a long time. An informer exposed the hoax, but a solution was found through bribery. In order to satisfy the Turks beyond that - a unique sight - two Islamic crescent moons were carved into the stone next to the cross above the main entrance. Even after Bulgaria's independence, the crescents were not removed because they had become symbols of the cunning of the Christian village population.

tourism

Bansko ski area

The well-known mountain health resort of Bansko is characterized by tourism thanks to its good access to the Pirin Mountains and one of the most famous winter sports resorts in Bulgaria. The ski season lasts from mid-December to mid-April. The ski area has slopes for all levels of difficulty with a total length of 75 km.

In recent years, green tourism has been rediscovered. In the summer months, Bansko offers countless hiking opportunities with the nearby Pirin National Park , which rises to an altitude of 1008 to 2914 m and covers an area of ​​27,000 hectares. Some of the hiking trails lead to Sandanski , Melnik and Roshen and Rila monasteries . There are also numerous routes that can be explored by mountain bike or on horseback. The national park is rich in lakes, waterfalls, caves and centuries-old trees (→ Bajkuschewa Mura ).

Environmental criticism

Bansko from the peak Vihren from

In recent years, however, there has been a clear focus on mass tourism . Centuries-old conifers have to give way to the numerous new ski slopes and hotels. Large-scale clearing of the previously untouched forests destroys the ecosystems, dramatically accelerates earth erosion and increases the risk of avalanches in winter . Ecologists point to the connections between the ski resort concessionaire, Julen AG ( Юлен АД ), with corrupt political circles. The large-scale development of the ski area was approved in part with a puzzling disregard for urgent ecological concerns.

On February 1, 2007, a letter from self-proclaimed radical nature conservationists reached the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior, threatening the remote controlled detonation of the ski slopes near Bansko. When the decision to build the ski area was given in 2000, this was done on the condition that the hotel capacity should not exceed 9,000 beds. In February 2011, environmental organizations reported that the hotel capacity is now 20,000. Several domestic and foreign nature conservation organizations are warning of an impending natural disaster, especially since Julen AG is planning to further expand the ski slopes. At a press conference in the run-up to the Alpine Ski World Cup in February 2011, the Bulgarian Environment Minister Nona Karadschowa spoke out in favor of expanding eco and wellness tourism , as the region with the Pirin National Park and the mineral springs of Banja and Dobrinishte are ideally suited to Could increase the attractiveness of the region in the period from April to October.

Culture and sport

The international Bansko Jazz Festival takes place in Bansko every year.

The 2007 European Biathlon Championships , the 2008 European Summer Biathlon Championships and on 26/27. February 2011 two races of the Alpine Ski World Cup 2010/2011 took place.

Town twinning

sons and daughters of the town

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean Cuisenier: The wedding of Marko. Bulgarian rites and myths. (Series of publications on dendrochronology and building research, vol. 7) Jonas, Marburg 2009, p. 68f
  2. ^ "Banko Ski Center" , accessed on January 15, 2011
  3. ↑ a b "Vacation in Bansko" , accessed January 15, 2011
  4. ↑ standartnews.com: "Bomb Threat in Bansko" , accessed February 7, 2007.
  5. ↑ Environmental organizations warn of a disaster in Pirin (Bulgarian) , Dnevnik , accessed on February 26, 2011
  6. ↑ “Bansko Ski Zone: Corruption and mafia” ( Memento from February 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.2 MB), accessed on February 8, 2007.
  7. ↑ The companies Galchev, Julen and Balkanstroi want to finance 200 km of slopes near Bansko and Raslog (Bulgarian) , Dnevnik , accessed on February 27, 2011
  8. ↑ Nona Karadschowa: Bansko and Raslog have to rely on wellness and ecotourism (Bulgarian) , Dnevnik , accessed on February 27, 2011
  9. ^ International Jazz Festival Bansko . banskojazzfest.com. Retrieved June 10, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Bansko  - collection of images, videos and audio files