Berkovitsa ( bg, Берковица ) is a town and ski resort in northwestern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous

Berkovitsa Municipality Berkovitsa Municipality ( bg, Община Берковица) is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Montana Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located in the area of the so-called Fore-Balkan to the northern slopes of the western Stara planina moun ...

Montana Province Montana Province ( bg, Област Монтана, transliterated: ''Oblast Montana'') is a province in northwestern Bulgaria, bordering Serbia in the southwest and Romania in the north. It spreads its area between the Danube river and the Balka ...

and is close to the town of

Varshets Varshets ( bg, Вършец, variously transliterated; ) is a spa town in Montana Province, northwestern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Varshets Municipality. As of December 2019, its population is 5,444. The town ...

. , it has a population of 13,917 inhabitants.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - Bulgarian towns in 2009

Location and history

Berkovitsa is situated on the northern slope of

Kom Peak Kom Peak ( bg, Ком ) or Golyam Kom (Голям Ком, "Big Kom") is a peak in the western Balkan Mountains, located in western Bulgaria, not far from the Serbian border. The peak is 2,016 metres high and lies south of the town of Berkovitsa, ...

of the Berkovska

Stara Planina The Balkan mountain range (, , known locally also as Stara planina) is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The range is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border betw ...

Mountain along the valley of the Berkovitsa River, which is a tributary to the Barziya River, at an altitude above sea level 405 m. The town was mentioned for the first time in Ottoman documents of 1488. It is near the site of an old fortified settlement on the road from Sofia to Lom. The remains of the fortress and a church were discovered on high ground at Kaleto, just to the west of the present-day town. The former settlement was known as early as the reign of King Kaloyan and was mentioned as a border settlement in the period of the Vidin Kingdom. Berkovitsa Glacier, on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, is named for Berkovitsa.

History

The region was involved in the

Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin The Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin ( bg, Въстание на Константин и Фружин, ''Vastanie na Konstantin i Fruzhin'') was the earliest Bulgarian uprising against Ottoman rule. It was organized in the early 15th century by t ...

(1408 - 1413) and the Chiprovtsi Uprising (1688). At the end of August 1872,

Vasil Levski Vasil Levski ( bg, Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as , ), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed th ...

arrived in Berkovitsa, together with the chairman of the Vratsa Revolutionary Committee, Mito Ankov.

Religion

Christianity

In the late antique fortress Kaleto, located on a hill north of Berkovitsa, a large bishopric complex was built during early Christianity. *Orthodox church of Nativity of Mary

Judaism

Until 1947, there was a significant Jewish community in Berkovitsa and there was a functioning synagogue.

Economy

Transportation

Berkovitsa has a terminus railway station. It is connected to Montana and has access to the railway connecting

Vidin Vidin ( bg, Видин, ; Old Romanian: Diiu) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as o ...

and

Vratsa Vratsa ( bg, Враца ) is the largest city in northwestern Bulgaria and the administrative and economic centre of the municipality of Vratsa and Vratsa district. It is located about 112 km north of Sofia, 40 km southeast of Montana. ...

. There are four trains per day.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Berkovitsa is twinned with: * Dzerzhinsky, Russia *

Zaječar Zaječar ( sr-Cyrl, Зајечар, ; ro, Zaicear or ) is a city and the administrative center of the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the city administrative area has a population of 59,461 inhabitants. Zaječar ...

, Serbia * Dimitrovgrad, Serbia

Gallery

BerkovitsaSquare.jpg, Berkovitsa Square BerkovitsaTower.jpg, Clock tower Kom stara planina IMG 8147.jpg, peak Kom Rojdestvo.jpg, Orthodox Church Berkovitsa Museum 2.JPG, Town museum Berkovitsa-IVHM.jpg, House-museum of

Ivan Vazov Ivan Minchov Vazov ( bg, Иван Минчов Вазов; – 22 September 1921) was a Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright, often referred to as "the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature". He was born in Sopot, a town in the Rose Valley of ...

Notable natives

Timo Angelov Eftim Angelov ( bg, Ефтим Ангелов), known as Timo Angelov (Bulgarian: Тимо Ангелов), was a Bulgarian revolutionary, a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). Eftim Angelov was born ...

, revolutionary, member of

IMARO The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

References

External links

Official website

Nikola Gruev’s photo gallery of Berkovitsa

Berkovitsa at Domino.bg
Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Montana Province {{MontanaBG-geo-stub