Lyaskovets ( ) is a town in central northern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, located in

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

ous municipality of

Veliko Tarnovo Province Veliko Tarnovo () is a province in the middle of the northern part of Bulgaria. Its capital city, Veliko Tarnovo, is of historical significance as it was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The province is divided into ten municipalitie ...

, 10 km northeast of

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

, 2 km southeast of

Gorna Oryahovitsa Gorna Oryahovitsa ( ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, situated in Veliko Tarnovo Province, from Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality. According to the 2021 Census, the town has a pop ...

and 5 km south of the

Yantra River The Yantra ( ) is a river in northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. Reaching a length of 285 km, it is the seventh longest river in Bulgaria and the third longest Bulgarian tributary of the Danube. In the middle and lower course, ...

, north of the

Balkan Mountains The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...

. Its name comes from the word ''leska'' ('

hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...

') or ''leshnik'' ('hazelnut'), because the tree was abundant in the area. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 10,314.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - towns in 2009

Lyaskovets Peak Lyaskovets Peak (, ) is the easternmost peak of Friesland Ridge in the Tangra Mountains, eastern Livingston Island and has an elevation of 1,473 m. The peak is bounded by Catalunyan Saddle on the west and Shipka Saddle on the east, and is he ...

, in the sub-Antarctic, is named after the town.

Geography

Lyaskovets Monastery (Petropavlovski monastery) is located on a hill southwest of town.

History

The area around the town has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC, but grew as an important Bulgarian settlement in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, during the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1422. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

, because of its proximity to the capital fortress of Veliko Tarnovo. The SS Peter and Paul Monastery helped its development as a religious centre, and Lyaskovets took the form of five neighbourhoods named after their respective churches (for which the town is still famous): St Athanasius, St Basil,

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

, St Demetrius and

St Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

. These neighbourhoods were established at different time by settlers, and grew to merge as one. After the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria in the 14th century, Lyaskovets, together with the neighbouring villages of Gorna Oryahovitsa, Dolna Oryahovitsa and Arbanasi, was formally regarded as autonomous (i.e. not part of the

rayah A raiyah or reaya (from , a plural of "countryman, animal, sheep pasturing, subjects, nationals, flock", also spelled ''raiya'', ''raja'', ''raiah'', ''re'aya''; , ; Modern Turkish ''râiya'' or ''reaya''; related to the Arabic word ''rā'ī ...

) according to a 1538 decree of

Selim II Selim II (; ; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond () or Selim the Drunkard (), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574. He was a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Hurrem Sul ...

. Though this was confirmed by later decrees, such as one by

Mahmud II Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...

in 1810, Lyaskovets () developed as a centre of revolutionary activity, and three armed uprisings set off from the monastery in the 18th and 19th century. Lyaskovets was bloodlessly liberated by the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

in June 1877 due to the flight of the Ottoman garrison in the town after having heard that Veliko Tarnovo was captured, and became part of the

Principality of Bulgaria The Principality of Bulgaria () was a vassal state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. It was established by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. After the Russo-Turkish War ended with a Russian victory, the Treaty of San Stefano was signed ...

. The former village was proclaimed a town on 15 March 1880. During the 18th century, the local inhabitants decided to produce vegetables on a large scale, mainly potatoes, tomatoes, okra, peas, eggplants, carrots, peppers and okra. This is the main reason why Lyaskovets has a unique museum dedicated to vegetable production and gardening. The museum has a rich inventory of the tools of local farmers from past centuries. Optimal organization plans of a garden, tools, work habits, and documents that state proper distribution of labor are also shown in the museum. An

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

in 1913 with a Richter magnitude of 7.0 destroyed many of the brick buildings in the town, including all five churches, which were later reconstructed. The earthquake claimed seven victims and injured over 30.

Education

*Primary school "Tzani Ginchev" *Primary school "Nikola Kozlev" *High school "Maxim Raikovich"

Economy

In the town one of the biggest factories is the company Arkus AD. It began as a machine factory and today is producing military products. FMA AD is one factory for packing metal sheets for the needs of the country and the industry. It had some factories for fireplaces, carpet, wines and others.

Municipality

Lyaskovets is also the seat of Lyaskovets municipality (part of Veliko Tarnovo Province), which includes the following 5 villages: * Dobri Dyal (Добри дял) * Dragizhevo (Драгижево) * Dzhulyunitsa (Джулюница) * Kozarevets (Козаревец) *

Merdanya Merdanya is a village in Northern Bulgaria, in Lyaskovets Municipality, Veliko Tarnovo Province. Аccording to the 2020 Bulgarian census, Dzhulunitsa has a population of 602 people with a permanent address registration in the settlement. Geogr ...

(Мерданя)

Gallery

Monument in Lyaskovets.jpg, Monument of the heroes from the wars School in Lyaskovets.jpg, Monument in Lyaskovets-2.jpg,

References

External links

Lyaskovets municipality website - new version in Bulgarian only

Lyaskovets municipality website - in English

The town of Lyaskovets and villages in the municipality

Nikola Gruev's photo gallery of the SS Peter and Paul Monastery
{{Veliko Tarnovo Province Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Veliko Tarnovo Province