Popowo
| Popowo (Попово) | |||
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| Basic data | |||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Targovishte | ||
| Residents : | 14,411 (December 31, 2016) | ||
| Coordinates : | 43 ° 21 ' N , 26 ° 14' E | ||
| Height : | 210 m | ||
| Postal code : | 7800 | ||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 0608 | ||
| License plate : | T | ||
| administration | |||
| Mayor : | Lyudmil Weselinov | ||
Popowo ( Bulgarian Попово ) is a city in Targovishte Oblast in northwestern Bulgaria . The city is the administrative center of the Popowo municipality and after Targovishte the second largest city in Targovishte Oblast.
geography
The city is located like an amphitheater on the Popowska reka river , also called Popowski Lom or Kalokotsch Dere , on two hills on both sides of the river and in the valley. The areas of the villages of Gagowo , Kardam , Medowina and Palamarza border on Popowo .
The northern part of the city is built on thick layers of gravel and sand.
In the more distant past, the city was divided into several districts, but today their boundaries have been completely blurred.
Near the city, near the villages of Kowachevets and Palamirza, lies the highest point in the region, Mount Kalakotsch (488 m). It is the third highest point on the Danube Plain .
Transport links
Popowo has good transport connections, as it is located in the middle of a triangle formed by the following roads: the E-85 (road No. 5: Veliko Tarnovo - Russe ), the E-70 (road No. 2: Varna - Shumen - Russe ) and the E-772 (road No. 4: Veliko Tarnowo - Targovishte - Shumen - Varna).
The distances to the largest neighboring cities and the capital are:
- Targovishte - 36 km;
- Veliko Tarnovo - 75 km;
- Russian - 75 km;
- Razgrad - 35 km;
- Opaka - 15 km;
- Gabrovo - 115 km;
- Wraza - 175 km;
- Sofia - 300 km.
It is 77 km to Ruse, where the Giurgiu-Russe Friendship Bridge is the border crossing to Romania.
Until recently, the Sofia - Varna railway ran right on the outskirts; now the course of the railway line has been slightly changed. The Sofia - Varna railway line runs between the city center and the Sejatschi district. The Sofia - Varna express trains do not stop in the city, but all other trains do.
Popowo is the center of bus connections that serve most of the municipality's villages and go to neighboring towns. The buses are operated by the former municipal bus transport company and other small bus companies. The bus station is at the train station.
geography
In Popowo there is a moderate continental climate . The winters are cold and there are heavy snowdrifts. Spring begins around mid-March when the air temperature is consistently above 5 ° C. In the spring, humid air masses penetrate from the southwest and west. Despite the relatively high altitude above sea level and the proximity to the Balkan Mountains , summers are usually hot and mostly dry. The city is then reached by air masses of tropical origin. The mean maximum temperature in July is 28.8 ° C and in August 28.6 ° C. With strong warming, the maximum temperatures reach 41 to 42 ° C. Overall, there is insufficient rainfall. Their maximum is at the beginning of summer. Droughts occur in July and August, and occasionally in September. Westerly winds predominate in the region. However, there is calm around 50% of the days.
population
Before the victory over the Ottomans ( Russo-Ottoman War from 1877 to 1878 ), the majority of the population was Turkish. Tatars lived in the village for a short time and were resettled in 1864. After the Russo-Ottoman War from 1828 to 1829 , permanent settlement by Bulgarians from the Balkan Mountains began. In 1898 the Bulgarian population far outnumbered. A large part of the Bulgarian population was resettled in 1882.
Today the Bulgarian population predominates in Popowo, although there are also Turks, both Roma , who have been resettled from the neighboring villages. Most of the Roma now live in their own neighborhood, the so-called Roma district.
| year | 1880 | 1892 | 1900 | 1910 | 1926 | 1934 | 1946 | 1956 | 1965 | 1975 | 1982 | 1992 | 2001 | 2007 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| population | 1148 | 1461 | 2103 | 2974 | 4866 | 5225 | 6525 | 10597 | 16497 | 19420 | 23000 | 19995 | 18067 | 17671 | |
| Note: After 1965, the residents of the new districts of Nevsky and Sejatschi were added to the population of Popowo | |||||||||||||||
religion
The city is predominantly Christian, while the surrounding villages have a compact Muslim population (Turks and Bulgarian Muslims), as well as Roma, who are partly Christian and partly Muslim.
There are two Orthodox churches in Popowo : the "Sweti Archangel Michail " church, also known as the "Old Church", completed in 1863 , and the " Uspenie Bogorodiza " church with frescoes by Nikola Marinow , Nikola Ganuschew and Zanko Wasilew. Construction began in 1908 and was not completed until 1931 after an interruption.
Just before Christmas 2007, the restoration and refreshment of the frescoes was completed. On March 9, 2008, the church was rededicated by Neofit, Metropolitan of Russe .
In the courtyard of the old church, the gravestones of the fallen Russian soldiers and officers who fell in the battle for Swetlen in 1877 during the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878) have been preserved.
In the city park there is an orthodox chapel "Roshdestvo na Presweta Bogoroditsa", which was built in 1908 and restored in the 1990s with donations from the Popovo population.
A converted mosque house is in operation in the Roma district. For the Muslims in Popowo, the building of the former "Teacher's House" is also used, which was formerly the Turkish school. The building is near the summer theater.
history
Early history, antiquity, the Middle Ages
There are three prehistoric settlement mounds from the Copper Age (Chalcolithic, Eneolithic) in the Popowo region . One hill is located northwest of the city, another in the Nevsky district and a third in the Sejatschi district. There are also 9 Thracian barrows from Roman times.
The barrows are spread over two necropolises . Most of them, however, have already been destroyed by robbery by treasure hunters.
Traces of buildings from ancient times and the Middle Ages were also found on the burial mounds.
The remains of the largest ancient settlement from the Roman era in the Popowo region can be found southeast of a former pig fattening facility in Popowo. West of Popowo, near a weekend house settlement, the remains of a small medieval settlement from the time of the First Bulgarian Empire were discovered earlier .
Until the independence of Bulgaria in 1878
The current name Popowo is derived from Pope (Bulgarian поп; Treeankription: Pop), the Bulgarian word for a priest of the Orthodox Church . "-owo" is a Slavic ending to denote place names.
The local settlement was first mentioned in 1555 in an Ottoman tax register ( Tımar register). There the place appeared under the name Kulfal fakach or Ewrenos. Ewrenos Baj (also: Gazi Evrenos , died 1417) was the name of the largest landowner in the region - with the largest real estate holdings ( Waqf ). At that time the settlement belonged to the Sanjak Nikopol as it belonged to the judicial district ( Kaza ) of Razgrad .
In the Ottoman tax register of 1573 the place is given under the name "Pop Alagjos" (in German: Pope with different colored eyes - note: in the sense of iris heterochromia ). This name persisted for a long time.
Later the place was named Popkjoj. The place was also known under the name Kara Lom (in German: Black Lom).
Immediately before Bulgaria's independence in 1878, the village of Popkoj belonged to the following Ottoman administrative units (starting with the smallest administrative unit):
After Bulgaria's independence (with the conversion of the Danube Vilayets into the Principality of Bulgaria), the village first belonged to the Razgrad District in the Ruse Governorate.
After Bulgaria's independence in 1878
During the Russo-Ottoman War (1877 to 1878), Russian troops marched into Popowo for the first time on July 16, 1877. The final liberation from Ottoman rule brought the Ruchuk Brigade (the Eastern Brigade) of the Russian Army on January 15, 1878 for the entire region.
After that, the place quickly overtook the surrounding places in their economic development. Balkanji Bulgarians (a Bulgarian ethnic group from the Balkan Mountains ) who were resettled from the municipalities of Gabrovo , Veliko Tarnovo , Elena , Drjanowo , Trjawna and Gorna Orjachowiza to replace the evacuated Turkish population in Popowo were settled in Popovo.
Other resettlers (in smaller numbers) came from the communities of Shumen , Sliven and Lovech .
In 1880 Popowo was declared a district center (Bulgarian околийски център). At first it comprised 48 villages. On June 10, 1883, Popowo was declared a city by decree of the Bulgarian prince.
The city experienced the greatest economic boom after the Sofia-Varna railway line was laid in the immediate vicinity of the city. In 1899 the station in Popowo was opened. This made the city the agricultural, economic and trading center of the region. In the 1920s and 1930s a factory for pressing sunflower oil was built here, two brickworks were expanded into ceramic factories, mills, a knitting factory, a paint factory, a printing and publishing house, a factory for soft drinks, a cigarette factory and many smaller light industry operations.
The Bulgarian Agricultural Credit Bank was founded in 1904 and Populjarna Banka in 1919 .
Electrification of the city began in 1926. In December 1926, the first electric street lighting was put into operation.
The largest cattle market in the whole of north-east Bulgaria was held in Popowo. After 1947, almost all of the larger and more important companies were relocated to Targovishte in order to create a basis for industrialization there too.
Between 1944 and 1989
After the communist seizure of power in Bulgaria (1944) and the nationalization of private companies, a large number of industrial companies were gradually built.
In 1971 the districts "Sapad" and "Rusalja" were rebuilt. Also in 1971, the two neighboring villages of Newski and Sejatschi were incorporated into the city and became districts of Popowo.
The city's businesses suffered from a constant shortage of labor until 1990, which is why the population grew steadily due to migration from the surrounding villages.
After a series of strong earthquakes in the winter of 1986, most of the public buildings and businesses had to be repaired or reinforced. A considerable part of the residential buildings, especially in the north and south of the city, had to be demolished because of the risk of collapse and were replaced by new ones.
After 1989
After the change in Bulgaria in 1989, the economic and military alliance of the socialist countries ( Comecon and Warsaw Pact ) also disintegrated . The rapid and not always successful privatization of the state-owned enterprises in Popovo, and in the whole of Bulgaria, meant that most of the factories in Popovo were ultimately closed. Especially since foreign trade collapsed because the main buyer of production, the collapsing Soviet Union , was in a deep crisis.
A little later, the factories that produced for military use also experienced a severe and persistent crisis.
Unemployment rose sharply and thereafter the city's population fell as an emigration to the larger industrial cities of Bulgaria and abroad began. The shrinking population was partially offset by the influx from the surrounding villages.
Since 2009, the city has given its name to the Popovo Saddle on Smith Island in Antarctica.
Cultural and educational institutions
There are 6 kindergartens, 3 elementary schools and 3 high schools in Popowo.
In the municipality of Popowo there are 33 Chitalischtes , which in Bulgaria represent a kind of culture house with a library.
The Tschitalischte Kyrill und Method is the largest Tschitalischte in Popowo. It was built in 1891. A music school is attached to it.