Kardzhali

	Kardzhali (Кърджали)
	"Почитай миналото, гради бъдещето" ; ("Honor the past, build the future")
	Kardzhali
	Kardzhali
Basic data
State :	Bulgaria
Oblast :	Kardzhali
Residents :	43,031 (December 31, 2016)
Coordinates :	41 ° 39 ′ N , 25 ° 22 ′ E Coordinates: 41 ° 39 ′ 0 ″ N , 25 ° 22 ′ 0 ″ E
Height :	275 m
Postal code :	6600
Telephone code :	(+359) 0361
License plate :	K
Administration (status: since 2003)
Mayor :	Hasan Asis Ismail
Ruling party :	Dwischenie sa Prawa i Swobodi
Website :	www.kardjali.bg

Kardzhali [ kɤrdʒɐli ] ( Bulgarian Кърджали , Turkish Kırcaali ) is a city of about 43,000 inhabitants in the south of Bulgaria . It is the administrative center of a municipality and the Kardzhali Oblast . The city is mostly inhabited by Turkish Bulgarians .

location

Kardzhali is located in the eastern Rhodope Mountains , 259 km southeast of Sofia and 90 km south of Plovdiv .

In the city there is a large historical museum with 4,000 exhibits, 179 archaeological objects (19 prehistoric, 122 ancient and 37 from the Middle Ages ), a musical theater and a puppet theater.

The Kardzhali dam is located near the city , through which the Arda is dammed up to form a reservoir. Perch were recently released from the Ovcharitsa reservoir. Thirty years ago 45,000 carp were released .

Nearby is the city of Momchilgrad (Bulgarian: Момчилград). It is 50 km to the city of Haskovo .

history

Historical Museum. Building in the 1920s in an oriental style built

The city was settled in ancient times. The Thracians left the first traces in more than 3000 years of history when they settled this area. Perperikon , one of the most important places of worship of antiquity , is from this time and not far from Kardzhali . Even after the Christianization of the region, Perperikon remained an important religious center.

The Thracians were followed by the Hellenes , Persians , Byzantines , Slavs , Bulgarians , Crusaders and Ottomans . In the Middle Ages, Kardzhali became the center of the Achridos province . The Sweti Joan Prodrom monastery was the center of one of the largest Christian-Orthodox eparchies of the Middle Ages. Not far from Kardschali (approx. 6 km) is the fortress Wischegrad , near which Heinrich von Flanders was crowned Latin Emperor in 1206 .

In 1362 the region was conquered by the Ottomans; all the major fortresses in the region were burned down and destroyed. During the Ottoman period, the city was rebuilt and given the name Kırcaali .

The city has given its name to Kardzhali Point , a headland on Livingston Island in Antarctica , since 2009 .

Town twinning

Kardzhali has partnerships with the following cities:

Schools in Kardzhali

Branch of the University of Plovdiv
Foreign language high school "Christo Botew"

sons and daughters of the town

Talât Pascha (1874–1921), Ottoman civil servant and politician
Tahsin Özgüç (1916–2005), Turkish archaeologist
Iwo Papasow (* 1952), Bulgarian musician
Huben Cherkelov (* 1970), Bulgarian painter
Şenol Can (* 1983), Turkish soccer player
Taner Sağır (* 1985), Turkish weightlifter
Eliza Kostowa (* 1990), tennis player

Web links

Commons : Kardzhali - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Population by Districts and Ethnic Group as of March 1, 2001. Retrieved February 8, 2019 .
↑ Vladimir: Sister Cities

[1] Population by Districts and Ethnic Group as of March 1, 2001. Retrieved February 8, 2019 .

[2] Vladimir: Sister Cities