Sopot (Bulgaria)
| Sopot (Сопот) | |||
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| Basic data | |||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Plovdiv | ||
| Residents : | 8197 (December 31, 2018 ) | ||
| Coordinates : | 42 ° 39 ' N , 24 ° 45' E | ||
| Height : | 510 m | ||
| Postal code : | 4330 | ||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 03134 | ||
| License plate : | PB | ||
| administration | |||
| Mayor : | Weselin Litschew | ||
| Website : | www.sopot-municipality.com | ||
Sopot ( Bulgarian Сопот ) is a city in central Bulgaria and the administrative center of a municipality of the same name .
Sopot is the birthplace of the most famous Bulgarian writer and activist of the Bulgarian National Revival, Ivan Vazov . Sopot is a center of mechanical engineering.
Geography and location
Sopot is located in the western part of the Rose Valley , 5 km west of Karlovo in the Plovdiv Oblast . The city is located at the foot of the southern Balkan Mountains , also called Trojanski Balkan here , in the valley of the Strjama River , at an altitude of 410 m. The city is located 136 km east of Sofia , 63 km north of Plovdiv and 61 km south of Trojan . In the vicinity of Sopot is the lower station of the chairlift to the Nesabrawka refuge . This is the longest chairlift on the Balkan Peninsula.
In addition to the city of Sopot, only the village of Anewo is incorporated into the municipality of Sopot .
history
Early history and antiquity
The history of Sopot as a settlement began around 3000 years ago. Archaeological traces of settlement can already be found from the Hallstatt Period (800 to 475 BC), a section of the older Iron Age. There is reason to believe that the history of settlement in Sopot is even older, as traces and gold treasures from the Copper Age, known as the Dabene culture, have been found in the village of Dabene (Bulgarian Дъbenе ) only seven kilometers away from Sopot . This treasure find (2005/2006) dates from the Bronze Age and is over 4000 years old. It comprises 15,000 pieces of gold and gold powder, an extremely rare find at this time, more than 500 tiny gold rings and a dagger made of a platinum-gold alloy.
At the time of the Odrysen kingdom there were at least three settlements on the territory of the present city. Coin finds of coins from the Thracian rulers Seuthes II and Seuthes III speak for this . , both of Philip II of Macedon , Alexander the Great , Philip III. of Macedonia and Lysimachus .
In addition to bronze coins, silver coins were also found, such as nominal tetradradchms .
In the centuries that followed, there was no interruption in the history of the settlement, as archaeological finds in the city and its surroundings show. Massive Roman ruins lie beneath today's city center. Such ruins can also be found in the Kajrjaka area . These are ruins of the so-called Triagalnika Fortress ("the triangle"). It was shaped like an equilateral triangle.
A Roman necropolis also dates from this period, which was discovered in 1988 within the city limits. The coins and artifacts found in the necropolis allow a date to be dated to the 2nd to 5th centuries AD.
Bulgarian-Byzantine Middle Ages
After the invasion of the Goths , the settlement moved east to the Sweta Troiza area , where mainly coins and objects from the time of Emperor Zenon and Emperor Anastasios I were found.
The settlement lasted until the 9th / 10th. Century on. Traces of a monastery were also found here. These probably come from the predecessor of today's men's monastery Wasnesenie Christowo ("Resurrection of Christ").
In the 10th to 11th centuries the settlement and the monastery were moved to their current location. The Sweta Bogorodiza Church (Upper Church) has existed since that time and has now been converted into a chapel . Part of the population stayed at the old settlement, in today's Sweta Troiza area , while another part of the population settled at the foot of the Anewsko Kale fortress . This is how the three central districts of the medieval city of Kopsis came into being, which, according to the Byzantine chroniclers Georgios Pachymeres and Johannes Kantakuzenos, was the capital of the possessions of the brothers Smilez , Wojsil and Radoslaw . However, other sources cite Kran . Smilez managed to ascend the throne of the Bulgarian tsars and rule from 1292 to 1298.
The name of the city of Kopsis, mentioned in the Byzantine Chronicles, was an exact Greek equivalent of the Old Slavic name Sopot.
According to Konstantin Jireček , the place name Sopot is of ancient Slavic origin, as a large number of places that are distributed over the entire Slavic world bear the place name Sopot. The name Sopot comes from the old Slavic word sopot , which means an "artificial water channel". Today there are 27 continuously flowing water sources that fed a water channel in the city.
The Ottomans, who conquered the city at the end of the 14th century, called them Usun Schechir (in German: long city), as the three districts stretch over 10 km. Since the city offered bitter resistance to the Ottomans, it was destroyed to the ground.
The name, although heavily mutilated to Gjopsa , remained as the name of the administrative unit (Nachija, Nahiya) until the end of the Ottoman rule (1878).
Ottoman rule
Even after the Omani had already destroyed the city, the conquerors mistrusted the population and founded the town of Karlovo in the vicinity of the village of Sushitsa in 1483 in order to develop it into the administrative center of the Nakhiya. The Kurschum Mosque from this period still stands in the center of Karlovo.
To secure the maintenance of the Kurschum Mosque, an Islamic, religious foundation ( Vakuf ) was set up in 1479 - the "Vakuf of Ali Karlasade", to which the areas around Karlowo were transferred. Sopot was also mentioned there for the first time, albeit under the name Aktsche Kilise (White Church). The city is entered with this name in all Ottoman tax registers ( Tımar register). In the novel Unter dem Joch (1893; Bulgar . Под игото , Pod Igoto ) by Ivan Wasow , Sopot is also described under the old name Aktsche Kilise . The Bulgarian population continued to use the name Sopot, which can also be seen from surviving copies of church records, the earliest of which is from 1585.
The dispute over the city limits between Sopot and Karlovo began with the founding of Karlovo. The dispute reached its climax in 1633, so that Sultan Murad IV had to personally issue an ordinance ( Ferman ) and sent officials from Istanbul and Stara Sagora to determine the borders between Karlovo and Sopot. The territorial dispute was of course decided in favor of the Vakuf, i.e. Karlovo.
In 1665 the women's monastery Vavedenie Bogoroditschno (Bulgarian Въведение Богородично ) was founded by the nun Susana. The monastery was built near the Chilendarski Metoche , which was burned down by the residents of Kardjali in 1794 . The name Metoch was retained and transferred to the women's monastery, although it is not a Metoche.
Païssi von Hilandar also came here in this Chilendarski Metoche and brought his Slav-Bulgarian story , which has been copied many times. Two late copies from the years 1828 and 1845 have survived, known as the Sopot Changes in Slav-Bulgarian History (Bulgarian Сопотски преправки на Отецпаисиевата история ).
From the middle of the 16th century, the Swera Bogorodiza church had a monastery school and a scriptorium . In addition to ecclesiastical books, Damaskini was also copied here , a collection of sermons by the Greek bishop Damaskenos Studites . The Damaskenos School existed until the first half of the 19th century. So far, five Damaskini are known to have come from Sopot.
Sopot was burned down and destroyed by bands of robbers from Kardzhali (1792-1804) in 1794, 1800 and 1807. The leaders of these gangs were Chasan Okjusdschioglu, Stojan Indscheto and finally Emin Aga Baltal. The last attack by Emin Aga in 1807 was particularly destructive, during which a large part of the population was expelled from Wallachia ( Brașov , Galați , Bucharest ).
In the following decades Sopot experienced an economic boom. Over 30 different trades have established themselves here. Among other things, glass production (since the 16th century) and knife production. Because of the developing domestic industry, the city was also called Gerdschik Sopot ("Beautiful Sopot") and Kjuchuk Manchester ("Little Manchester") at that time. The wool socks produced in Sopot were exported to Bosnia and Herzegovina . This allowed the municipality to open the third “New Bulgarian School” in Bulgaria in 1836. Sopot was called "Golden Sopot" during the Bulgarian Revival (18th / 19th centuries) because its handicrafts and trade flourished. The people of Sopot spun and braided at home, made high quality skins and leather, and traded, mainly within the Ottoman Empire.
One of the largest Bulgarian churches from the time of the Bulgarian National Revival was built in Sopot from 1845 to 1846 - the Church of Sweti Apostoli Petar i Pawel (Lower Church), built by builders from Brazigowo . A girls' school was founded in 1850, which was converted into a four-class school in 1874. The Tschitalischte was built in 1870 .
Sopot was an important center in the work of Wasil Levski . He was accepted as a monk under the name Ignatij on November 24, 1858 (according to the old calendar) in the Sweti Spas monastery (Wasnesenie Christowo). Levski founded one of the first revolutionary committees in Bulgaria here in 1869. Although he was born in Karlovo, he was drawn to his mother in Sopot when he visited the region.
Recent history
“Beautiful Sopot” went down in the flames of the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878). The city was burned down in 1877 and the population killed and displaced. Of the 6000-strong population, over 900 were killed or carried away from hunger, hardship and disease within six months, until the final, second liberation of the city on January 1, 1878 (according to the old calendar). Between 1950 and 1965 the city was named Wasowgrad (Вазовград) and was then renamed back to Sopot.
economy
In the Sopot region, which is located in the Rose Valley , roses are grown on a large scale for the production of rose oil . Other important companies are:
- the Wasowsche engineering factory , an arms manufacturer
- the ball bearing factory, which has been part of SKF since 2002 ,
- Pepper Modna Industrija (sewing industry).
In Sopot there is an unconventional way of tempting tax debtors to pay. The “Black Angels”, a male choir consisting mostly of former employees of the local arms factory, visit the debtor and give a serenade, reminding him to pay.
Attractions
Sopot is one of the 100 national tourist objects of Bulgaria with the following sights :
- the women's monastery "Vavedenie bogoroditschno" (from 1665),
- the museum house Ivan Wasov,
- the monastery "Sweti Spas" or the male monastery of Sopot "Waswesenie Gospodina" (in its current form since 1879)
- Anewsko Kale (a fortress from the 13th to 15th centuries)
The intermediate station of the chairlift to the Nesabrawka mountain hut in the Balkan Mountains is located in the Potschiwaloto area at 1389 m. From here you can easily start with a paraglider . An international paragliding competition is held in Sopot every year.
Sons and daughters
- Nedelja Petkowa (1826-1894), Bulgarian educationalist
- Ivan Wasov (1850–1921), historian, writer, politician and one of the activists of the Bulgarian National Revival.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Population by towns and sex. In: nsi.bg. Republic of Bulgaria - National Statistical Institute (NSI), April 12, 2019, accessed May 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Weltspiegel of April 22, 2012: Review: Bulgaria. Collect taxes with choir singing ( Memento from July 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
