Chepelars
| Chepelare (Чепеларе) | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Smolyan | ||||
| Residents : | 4944 (December 31, 2016) | ||||
| Area : | 73.861 km² | ||||
| Population density | 66.9 inhabitants / km² | ||||
| Coordinates : | 42 ° 2 ' N , 24 ° 41' E | ||||
| Height : | 1232 m | ||||
| Postal code : | 4850 | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 3059 | ||||
| License plate : | CM | ||||
| administration | |||||
| Mayor : | Gerogi Popov | ||||
| Ruling party : | Bulgarian Socialist Party | ||||
| Website : | www.chepelare.com | ||||
Chepelare ( Bulgarian Чепеларе , English transcription Chepelare ) is a town and winter sports resort in the Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria . The city is located in the province of Smolyan and is the center of the eponymous municipality of Chepelare .
location
Tschepelare is located in the central Chernati massif of the Rhodope Mountains, at the foot of the 1873 m high Metschi tschal mountain in a valley basin. The Chaya River flows through the valley .
history
The region was already settled by the Thracians in ancient times. Archaeological excavations suggest that the area around Chepelare dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. Was settled. After it was subjugated by the Roman Empire , the Balkan Peninsula was romanised and a transport network was built. Two of the most important Roman roads were the Via Egnatia and the Via Militaris , which had several cross connections, one of which followed the course of the Chaya River and connected the ancient Philipopolis with Philippi on the Aegean Sea . During excavations in Chepelare one were Statio and Roman baths located.
In the 7th century AD, the Slavs conquered the Balkans and the Slavic tribe of the Smolyan settled in the area. In the Middle Ages, the region was disputed between the Bulgarian Empire and the successors of the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. Local princes were also able to hold their own for a long time.
In the 14th century, the Chepelare with the rest of the Rhodope region was ruled by the Bulgarian prince Momchil Vojwoda before the Ottoman Empire subjugated the country. Archaeological finds revealed that most of the settlements were abandoned or destroyed during this period. Bulgarian Christian graves from the 12th-14th centuries have been found within the city. Century exposed. The region was Islamized in several waves during the subsequent Ottoman rule , the last of which took place in 1657.
In the course of the "Russo-Turkish War of Liberation" of 1877/78, Chepelare was liberated on January 18, 1878 by soldiers from the Caucasus and Kazakhstan under General Tscherevin. With the Peace of San Stefano , the Ottoman-Turkish rule over the current city also formally ended. In the same year, Petko Wojwoda and his freischarge moved into Chepelare to protect the population from the mutineers of the supporters of Saint Clair, an Ottoman officer. After the Berlin Congress , however, Tschepelare was again part of the Ottoman Empire and incorporated into the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia . Chepelare became a border town. Here lingered on their way into the not yet liberated areas of the motherland very often the fighters from the crowd of Voivod Pezho Schischmanov.
In January 1885 a local, revolutionary committee of the BGRZK was founded in Chepelare , which had the aim of unifying the Ottoman province with the rest of Bulgaria and carried it out in September of the same year. After the union of Eastern Rumelia with the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885, the border with the Ottoman Empire was drawn in the south. As a result, the winter pastures on the Aegean Sea for thousands of sheep were lost. As a result, the farmers of Chepelare slaughtered a large part of their herds and cleared large parts of the forests around them in order to create pastures for the remaining sheep. Between 1879 and 1886, 30,000 hectares of coniferous forest in the area around Chepelare were destroyed in this way. On the other hand, it created new jobs in wood extraction and wood processing. The wood was transported on the river to Stanimaka (today Asenovgrad ).
In the period from 1879 to 1895, 30 Pomak families with 145 members left Chelare and settled in Eastern Thrace . In 1880 a post office was opened in the city and connected to the telegraph network. According to the 1910 census, 625 Pomaks lived in Chepelare.
In 1922 one of the first Bulgarian hydropower plants was put into operation here. Chepelare became the first electrified city in the Rhodope Mountains. Little by little, Chepelare developed into a climatic health resort, especially in the 30s of the 20th century. In 1934 the first alpine association "Studenez" (Bulgarian Студенец) and in 1950 the first cave association was founded.
The city is named after Chepelare Peak , a mountain on Livingston Island in Antarctica.
Economy, transport and tourism
Chepelare is home to the only Bulgarian manufacturer of ski and snowboard devices and equipment, which was set up in 1981 as a production facility for the Austrian company Atomic .
Since Chepelare is not connected to the Bulgarian railway system, there is only bus traffic here. The bus station is on the left bank of the river. There are regular bus connections to Plovdiv , Asenovgrad , Sofia , Smolyan , Pamporovo , Shiroka Laka and other smaller towns in the region.
The Metschi Tschal ski slopes are in the immediate vicinity of the town . Large-scale investments were made in the period from 2007 to 2009. So today the lower station of the double chairlift is on the main road to Smolyan and Pamporowo. Its length is 2471 m. The total length of the slope is 8,400 meters.
Culture and sights
In the town there is the Museum of Speleology and Bulgarian Karst . It is the only museum of its kind not only in the country, but on the Balkan Peninsula and in Europe. Other attractions are:
- the Atanas Church (Sw. Atanas)
- the Marien-Kirche (Sw.Bogorodiza)
- the Tschitalischte Rodopska Iskra
Chepelare is the starting point of several hiking trails in the mountains that are closely connected with the name of the singer Orpheus . In the vicinity of Chepelare there is the Chudnite Mostowe rock formation , one of the 100 national tourist objects in Bulgaria. Other nearby attractions include Mount Mechi Chal and the Roschen Observatory .
sons and daughters of the town
- Mehmed Kjorhodscha , Ottoman administrator
- Kara Ibrahim (1763–1845), Ottoman Başı Bozuk and administrator
- Anton Detschew (1876–1939), Bulgarian revolutionary and functionary of the BMARK
- Wassil Detschow (1866–1941), Bulgarian historian and ethnographer
- Marija Manolowa (* 1963), Bulgarian biathlete
- Ekaterina Dafowska (* 1975), Bulgarian biathlete and Olympic champion
Individual evidence
- ↑ Methodius Draginow: The Belove Chronicle.
- ↑ Stojan Rajtschewski: Българите мохамедани, Verlag Национален музей на българската книга и полиграфия, Sofia 1998 (reprint 2004), ISBN 100. 954-9308 , ISBN 100. 954-9308
- ↑ Stojan Rajtschewski [1998]: Българите мохамедани ( Bulgarian ), 2nd edition, Национален музей на българската книга и ISBN: 101-09 , 954-9, Sofia, 2004 , p.
- ↑ bgrod.org ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ terranatura ( Memento of April 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
