Bansko ( ) is a town in southwestern

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 Blagoevgrad Oblast near the city of

Razlog Razlog ( ) is a town and ski resort in Razlog Municipality, Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria. It is situated in the Razlog Valley and was first mentioned during the reign of Byzantine emperor Basil II. The municipality The municip ...

. Once mainly a stockbreeding and travelling merchant community, the town is now an international centre for winter and summer tourism. More recently Bansko has become a known hotspot for digital nomads driven in part by the relative affordability of the location combined with its natural scenery.

Location and Transportation

Bansko lies at the foot of the Pirin Mountains, not far from the national park of the same name, in the valley of the Nestos River at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 925 meters

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It is a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

. The city is about 160 km from

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

and about 220 km from

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

. Bansko is a stop on the narrow-gauge Septemvri–Dobrinishte narrow-gauge line from

Septemvri Septemvri (, , ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, southern Bulgaria. It is the administrative center of homonymous Septemvri Municipality. As of 2024 the town had a population of 8,071. Geography The town is situated at an altitude of about ...

to Dobrinishte. There are rail connections (changing in September) to Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas. There are bus connections to Sofia,

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

Blagoevgrad Blagoevgrad ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province. With a population of almost inhabitants, it is the economic and cultura ...

, Razlog and Gotse Delchev. The nearby village of Banya, located only from the town, is known for its 27 thermal mineral springs.

Economy

The mountain peaks near the town, the numerous lakes and the old pine woods make it a recreation destination. Bulgaria's share in European winter tourism is steadily rising, and Bansko increasingly competes with resorts in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

due to the comparatively lower costs. Improvements to the infrastructure and organisation of the ski area on Todorka have been made annually to accommodate the rising number of tourists. A

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate suppo ...

was built from town in 2003, replacing the minibus ride to the primary base area of Banderishka Poliana. , the ski area has of ski runs, 14 lifts and drags, serving up to 24,500 persons per hour. The lift-served summit rises to an

. The vertical drop is nearly to the base area at Banderishka Poliana, and over with the ski runs to town. Nowadays Bansko is known as a destination for

digital nomad A digital nomad is a person who travels freely while working remotely using information and communications technology such as the Internet. Such people generally have minimal material possessions and work remotely in temporary housing, hotels, c ...

s. The influx of digital nomads, including many who have purchased property in the town are claimed to have contributing to stabilising the town's property market and boosting the long-stay tourism in the town particularly outside the winter peak season. There are a growing number of coworking spaces in Bansko including Coworking Bansko is a community of Digital Nomads that has two co-working locations in the north and south part of the town. The annua
Bansko Nomad Fest
is believed to be one of the world's largest event for digital nomads attracting 700 participants in 2023.

Climate

Historical climate data

Sports

Bansko has recently hosted FIS World Cup

alpine ski ''Alpine Ski'' (アルパイン・スキ一) is an alpine skiing arcade video game released by Taito in 1981. The player controls a skier on a vertically scrolling video game, vertically scrolling course who can move left, right, or increase for ...

races: the women race in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

in two downhills and a

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event ...

. The men's circuit made its first stop at Bansko in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

with a

super combined Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a s ...

and a slalom. It hosted the men's

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

in February 2012 and the FIS World Cup ladies' downhill and super G, and men's

and slalom. Alpine and biathlon competitions take place regularly. It is expected that the summer biathlon world cup will also take place in the resort of Bansko.

Religion

The church "Sveta Troitsa" (

Holy Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

) is an Orthodox Christian church, part of

Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church (), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria (), is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction based in Bulgaria. It is the first medieval recognised patriarchate outside the Pentarchy and t ...

. It was built by the people of Bansko in 1835. The Bulgarian

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Church Community, the first

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

church in Bulgaria, was founded in Bansko on 6 August 1868.

Events

The town is the location for an annual jazz event, the Bansko Jazz Festival, and also the annual Bansko pop-star concert. In March, the town hosts the British underground dance fete Horizon Festival. This town held the International Linguistics Olympiad in 2023. In the last week of June each year th
Bansko Nomad Fest
is one of the largest events for digital nomads with participants from all over the world taking part.

Honours

Bansko Peak on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetland Islands, South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands north of the ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

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

is named after the town of Bansko.

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Bansko is twinned with: * Amphipolis, Greece *

Didymoteicho Didymoteicho ( ) is a town located on the eastern edge of the Evros (regional unit), Evros regional unit of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, in northeastern Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name. The town (pop. 8,681 in 2021 ...

, Greece * Doxato, Greece *

Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...

, Poland *

Bormio Bormio (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' with a population of about 4,100 located in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy. The centre of the upper Valtellina valley, it is a popular winter sports resort. It was the ...

, Italy, since 2023.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Bansko include: * Paisius of Hilendar (1722-1773), author of Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya * Irina Nikulchina (born 1974),

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

bronze medal winner * Neofit Rilski (1793-1881), monk, teacher and artist * Nikola Vaptsarov (1909-1942), poet and revolutionary

References

External links

* *
"Banskok Ski" website with Information about Bansko, ski slopes, lift passes, webcams

Bansko Ski world cup event website

Bansko Culinary tourism website covering the Bansko-Razlog area

Bansko International jazz festival event website

Bansko Tourist portal website

Bansko Mountaineer film festival event website

Bansko Nomad Fest - event website

Videlo One-Stop Hub for Ski Lessons, Rental and More
{{Authority control Ski areas and resorts in Bulgaria Tourist attractions in Blagoevgrad Province Bansko