Bobov Dol ( bg, Бобов дол ; also Bobovdol) is a town in Bobov Dol Municipality,

Kyustendil Province Kyustendil Province ( bg, Област Кюстендил, trl ''Oblast Kyustendil'') is a province in southwestern Bulgaria, extending over an area of (constituting 2.7% of the total territory of the Republic of Bulgaria), and with a populat ...

, southwestern

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 Macedo ...

. Bobov Dol lies near the geographic centre of the

Balkan Peninsula The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

and is known for its

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s and

thermal power plant A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam ...

. The third-largest town in the province (after

Kyustendil Kyustendil ( bg, Кюстендил ) is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, ...

and

Dupnitsa Dupnitsa, or Dupnica ( bg, Дупница (previously ), ), is a town in Western Bulgaria. It is at the foot of the highest mountains in the Balkan Peninsula – the Rila Mountains, and about south of the capital Sofia. Dupnitsa is the second l ...

), it is the administrative centre of Bobov Dol municipality. Located in a mountainous region, it is surrounded on three sides by the mountain Konyavska Planina, with the Gologlavski Rid ridge to the north and east and the volcano-resembling peak of Kolosh to the west. To the south is the Razmetanitsa plain which reaches the valley of the Struma River. The town's name (literally "

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

valley") may allude to the bean-shaped valley where the original village, now the Hristo Botev neighbourhood, is located; the name was first mentioned in 1576. To the east is the other town part of Bobov Dol, the newer Minyor neighbourhood in the Bankovitsa area which dates to 1954 and mostly consists of

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...

s. Bobov Dol was first mentioned in an Ottoman tax register of 1576, although the area had been inhabited by the

Thracians The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

in antiquity and was part of the medieval

Bulgarian Empire In the medieval history of Europe, Bulgaria's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the ...

, as well as the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. Although in the 1830s the geologist

Ami Boué Ami Boué (16 March 179421 November 1881) was a geologist of French Huguenot origin. Born at Hamburg he trained in Edinburgh and across Europe. He travelled across Europe, studying geology, as well as ethnology, and is considered to be among th ...

visited the region and studied the local coal deposits, it was not until after the Liberation of Bulgaria that extraction began, namely in 1891. On 30 September 1967, the village of Bobov Dol was proclaimed a town. The Bobov Dol Thermal Power Plant was built between 1973 and 1975 10 kilometres from the town, at the village of Golemo Selo. During the Socialist era, Bobov Dol attracted many workers as it experienced an economic and demographic boom, with groups of workers arriving from as far as

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

in the 1980s. Notable natives include football manager Georgi Vasilev (born 1946) and Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski (born 1960). The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club, PFC Minyor Bobov dol, plays in the second division of Bulgarian football,

B PFG The Bulgarian Second Professional Football League ( bg, Втора професионална футболна лига, Vtora Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as Second League ( bg, Втора Лига) or Vtora liga, is the second level ...

Municipality

Bobov Dol is the administrative centre of Bobov Dol municipality (part of Kyustendil Province), which includes the following 18 places:

References

External links

Official municipality website

Bobov Dol municipality at Domino.bg
{{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Kyustendil Province