Kalotina
| Kalotina (Калотина) | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Sofia | ||||
| Residents : | 275 (Sept 13, 2005) | ||||
| Coordinates : | 43 ° 0 ' N , 22 ° 52' E | ||||
| Height : | 621 m | ||||
| Postal code : | 2212 | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 07174 | ||||
| License plate : | CO | ||||
| administration | |||||
| Mayor : | Lidia Boschilova | ||||
Kalotina ( bulg . Калотина ) is a village in the far west of Bulgaria , in Sofia Province , in the municipality of Dragoman .
One kilometer west of the village is the Kalotina border crossing of the same name .
geography
Kalotina is located 54 km northwest of Sofia , 20 km northwest of Slivnitsa and 10 km northwest of Dragoman .
The village is located on the western foothills of the Balkan Mountains in a valley basin, which is surrounded by the peaks Gabor, Rawniza Gradischte and Goli Wrach.
The name of the village comes from a fortress that was nearby and was used to guard a mountain crossing. " Kale " means fortress or castle in Turkish. The Ottoman Empire has for 500 years, until the Russian liberation war (1878), dominates the Now one of Bulgaria territory.
Nishava
The river Nischawa, which has its source at the foothills of the Balkan Mountains, east of the Kom summit, flows through the village . The first section of the river is also known as the Ginska River. Near the Serbian village of Sukovo, the Erma River joins the Nisha. To the west of Kalotina the Nischa flows from Bulgaria to Serbia across the border to later flow into the southern Morawa .
In the village the smaller river Eschowiza flows into the Nischawa .
Surroundings
50 meters above the Nischawa river, in the Tupaniza gorge, there are several caves in the middle of almost inaccessible bare rocks. A rock monastery was built in this gorge in the 18th or 19th century and the limestone caves were expanded into monastery cells and connected to one another.
There are several rock monasteries and rock churches in the area:
- 2 kilometers west of the village Razboishte (bulg. Село Разбоище) is the church Sweto Vavedenie Bogoroditschno (bulg. Свето Въведение Богородично) from the 4th to 6th centuries;
- the relatively new monastery Swete Petka (bulg. Св. Петка) is about 1 km from the village of Tscheparlinzi (bulg. село Чепърлинци);
- the medieval church of Sweti Petar i Pawel (bulg. Св. Петър и Павел) from the 14th century is located near the village of Berende (bulg. село Беренде), about 1 km from Kalotina; the church was declared a cultural monument.
Transport links
From Sofia the E 80 (trunk road 8) leads via Boschurishte , Slivnitsa and Dragoman to Kalotina and in Serbia to Dimitrovgrad , Pirot and Niš . The E 80 is to be expanded in a few years to the A1 Trakija motorway, which will then lead from Kalotina via Sofia and Plovdiv to Burgas . The Kalotina – Sofia road section is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor X (C) Niš – Sofia.
history
The remains of a fortress near the village show that the Thracians were the first inhabitants of the valley. During construction work, a Roman tomb was accidentally discovered in the Gramada area, which testifies to the time of Roman rule, which extended over several centuries. The Roman road Via Militaris , also known as Via Diagonalis, ran near the village .
In the village there is the medieval boyar church " Sweti Nikola " in the Diwina district. According to an inscription, the church was built by local feudal lords in the 14th century, during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander - probably between 1331 and 1334 (or until 1337). The church is small and unsightly (one nave, triangular apse ), but richly decorated with wall paintings, which have been poorly preserved. Wall paintings from the 16th century have been preserved in the church , including portraits of the church donors (in the Orthodox Church these are called Ktitor ). Nothing more is known about the donors, it is a certain Dejan and his wife Wladislawa. An inscription on the outside can no longer be deciphered.
During the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885/86, the village was occupied by Serbian troops from the Danube Division and after the decisive battle of Slivnitsa it was recaptured by the Bulgarians.
In 1900 the village was the center of a parish that comprised seven villages and had 582 inhabitants. In 1905 another village (Gradine) was incorporated into the municipality of Kalotina. Gradine is now on the western edge of the village.
In 2005 Kalotina had 282 inhabitants. Since 2013, the place has given its name to Kalotina Island in Antarctica.
Others
The AWO Bulgaria Foundation of AWO Saxony-Anhalt supported a children's home in Kalotina in 1998 as an aid project.
