Velingrad ( bg, Велинград ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern

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 ...

, located at the western end of

Chepino Valley The Chepino Valley (), or Chepino ( bg, Чепино, link=no), is the largest valley in the Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria. It is situated along the course of the Chepino River near the Batak Mountains in the northwestern part of the ...

, part of the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...

. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality and one of the most popular Bulgarian balneological resorts. The town has a population of 22,602 inhabitants according to the 2011 census of Velingrad.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - towns in 2011
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History

The region was inhabited by the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. According to Bulgarian academics, the Dragovichi tribe lived there. The Dragovichi accepted many

Thracian 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 ...

customs, but gave them typical Slavic characteristics. Soon after the Bulgar invasion of the Balkans, the whole region was annexed to the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Eur ...

by Malamir. Velingrad was founded in 1948 after the unification between the villages–Chepino, Ladzhene and Kamenitsa, renamed after Vela Peeva, a

n communist revolutionary who gave up her life during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Chepino and Kamenitsa are older settlements, but Ladzhene was founded after 1878 by Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, because their region remained under Ottoman rule after the Treaty of Berlin.

Geography

Velingrad is situated at 750–850 m above sea level. Summers are warm and winters are cold. The average annual temperature is 10 °C, while the average July temperature is 19 °C. The annual duration of sunshine is about 2,000 hours. The relative air humidity ranges from 65 to 75%. Surrounded by age-old pine tree woods, the town favors abundant sunshine.

Demographics

Velingrad has an Aromanian community, being one of the few places in Bulgaria where Aromanians live. An Aromanian cultural organization exists in Velingrad.

Waters

There are more than 90 mineral water springs with curative and preventive properties in and around the town. The mineral waters (from springs and wells) vary considerably in temperature, mineralization, radon, silicic acid and fluorine content, and are suitable for treatment of a wide range of diseases. 9000 litres of water per minute spring from the five thermal and mineral deposits in Ladzhene, Kamenitsa, Chepino, Rakitovo and Kostandovo. Together with the numerous mineral waters, Velingrad boasts another natural phenomenon as well — the Kleptuza, the biggest

Karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathe ...

spring in Bulgaria, with an average discharge of 1200 litres of ice-cold water per second.

Culture, education and architecture

There are eight schools (five of them

high schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

), three reference libraries (

chitalishte A ''chitalishte'' (, . Derives from the verb "чета" - "to read" or "читател" - "reader") is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building that fulfills several functions at once, such as a community centre, library, and a theat ...

s), about 100 hotels (some of which five-

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

), a

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

and a city orchestra. The Villa Raîna is a Néo-Renaissance villa in the city's area of Ldžene ( bg, Лъдженe) and was designed in 1928 by a renowned pre-WWII Serbian architect Milutin Borisavljević (1889-1970). Initially, "Raina" was conceived as the summer house of the Belgrade based industrialist, Stojadin "Stole" Stevović (1888-1945), for the needs of the families Stevović and

Simić Simić ( sr-cyr, Симић; ) is a Serbo-Croatian surname derived from the male given name ''Simo'' (a diminutive), found mainly among ethnic Serbs, but also Croats. It may refer to: * Aleksa Simić (1800-1872), three-time prime minister * Aleks ...

. The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Velingrad, locally called the "Acropolis". The design mainly reflected the values of French Renaissance architecture but with discreet decorative features in the then fashionable

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style. The house was nationalized in 1946, and transformed into a sanatorium for the treatment of infectious diseases. In 1992 the Villa Raina was restituted to Stevović's heirs (families Krsmanović-Simić and Gillès de Pélichy). The summer house is today protected by law as a cultural and historical monument of regional importance.Велинградски Темпо Новини - Вила “Райна”: от миналото се ражда бъдеще
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Balneology and tourism

The natural environment, climatic features, and mineral springs favourable for the treatment of a number of diseases make Velingrad a tourist destination for Bulgarian as well as foreign citizens. On the territory of the city there are 3 sanatoriums, over 60 hotels, 140 restaurants and entertainment venues. Six holiday complexes have been modernised, offering all types of balneological services. Public mineral baths have been improved and 22 outdoor and indoor mineral pools have been built. In Velingrad there is a possibility for treatment of lung and joint diseases, neurological and gynecological problems (including infertility), kidney, liver, gastrointestinal and many other problems. Spa treatment is carried out by drinking mineral water, inhalations, baths and rinses.

Honour

Velingrad Peninsula in

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee an ...

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 cont ...

is named after the city.

Notable people

* Atanas Semerdzhiev (1924 - 2015) - partisan, general and politician, Vice President of Bulgaria (1990 - 1992) * Vela Peeva (1922 - 1944) - partisan, after whom the city is named *

Nicolai Ghiaurov Nicolai Ghiaurov (or ''Nikolai Gjaurov'', ''Nikolay Gyaurov'', bg, Николай Гяуров) (September 13, 1929 – June 2, 2004) was a Bulgarian opera singer and one of the most famous basses of the postwar period. He was admired for his ...

(1929 - 2004) - opera singer, performer, intellectual * Sasho Kasiyanov (1951 - 2012) - musician, pedagogue, longtime radio host in Sliven * Vasil Ivanov Goranov (b. 1972) - Bulgarian contemporary artist *

Margarita Popova Margarita Stefanova Popova ( bg, Маргарита Стефанова Попова; born 15 May 1957) is Bulgarian jurist, prosecutor, educator who was Vice President of Bulgaria from 2012 to 2017. She previously served as Minister of Justice fro ...

(b. 1956) - Minister of Justice (2009 - 2011) and Vice President of Bulgaria (2012 - 2017) *

Lydia Shouleva Lydia Shouleva ( bg, Лидия Шулева; born 23 December 1956 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the National Movement Simeon II, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Eu ...

(b. 1956) - politician, Deputy Prime Minister (2001 - 2005), Minister of Labor and Social Policy (2001 - 2003), Minister of Economy (2003 - 2005) * Petar Georgiev Gugalov (b. 1929) - opera singer * Vasil Bozhkov (b. 1956) is a businessman * Nikola Hadji Daskalov (1894 -?) - Macedonian-Edirne volunteer, the detachment of Georgi Myakhov * Vlado Chernozemski (1897 - 1934) - a revolutionary * Georgi Atanasov Puhalev (1935 - 2008) - Bulgarian scientist, landscape architect and economist, professor. * Kiril Grigorov Ilinchev (1921 - 1994) - film and theater director, screenwriter and actor * Petar Punchev (b. 1956) - journalist, co-founder of Radio FM + *

Neri Terzieva Neri or Néri may refer to: Places * Neri, Iran, a village in West Azerbaijan Province *Neri, India, a village in the north Indian state Himachal *Neri River, a river in Ethiopia People and fictional characters * Neri (surname) * Neri (given name) ...

(b. 1952) is a journalist * Jako Avramov Molkhov (1915 - 2001) - critic, screenwriter, writer *

Vasil Pendev Vasil ( Bulgarian and Macedonian: Васил, Georgian: ვასილ) is a Bulgarian, Macedonian and Georgian masculine given name. It may refer to: * Vasil Adzhalarski, Bulgarian revolutionary, an IMARO leader of revolutionary bands * Vasil A ...

(b. 1947) is a cartoonist * Iliya Semerdzhiev - actor and host * Kostadin Filipov is a TV journalist * Dimitar Mechev (1928 - 2007) - conductor * Tsvetan Golomeev (1962 - 2010) - swimmer * Dimo Tonev (b. 1964) is a volleyball player * Georgi Gadzhev (b. 1964) is a football player * Nedko Milenov (b. 1978) is a football player

Notes

External links

Virtual Velingrad
{{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Cities and towns in the Rhodopes Populated places in Pazardzhik Province Spa towns in Bulgaria Populated places established in 1948 Aromanian settlements in Bulgaria