Kalotina ( ) is a village in the

Dragoman Municipality Dragoman Municipality is a municipality in Sofia Province, Bulgaria. Demography According to the 2011 census, there are 5,362 people living in the municipality of Dragoman, down from 17,187 people in 1934. Most inhabitants live in the town of Dra ...

Sofia Province Sofia Province () is a province (''oblast'') of Bulgaria. The province does not include Sofia in its territories, but Sofia remains the seat of its administration. The province borders on the provinces of Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Paz ...

, in westernmost central

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 ...

. As of 2010, it has 270 inhabitants and the mayor is Lidia Bozhilova. The village is located at the border with

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, 55 km to the northwest of the capital

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 ...

, on the main highway and railway between

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. Kalotina lies at , 282 metres above sea level. The place is known for the Kalotina- Gradinje

border checkpoint A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders of ...

, one of Bulgaria's busiest and best known due to the proximity to Sofia. The Nishava River, a tributary of the

South Morava The South Morava (; Macedonian and Serbian: Јужна Морава, ''Južna Morava'', ) is a river in eastern Kosovo and in southern Serbia, which represents the shorter headwater of Great Morava. Today, it is long, including its source ri ...

, flows nearby. The village was first mentioned in 1453 with its present name. In a 1576 source, it was referred to as ''Kalotine''. Kalotina's name is the feminine form of an adjective derived from the

personal name A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek ''prósōpon'' – person, and ''onoma'' –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that on ...

Kalota (Калота); it is an

ellipse In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focus (geometry), focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special ty ...

, as no noun is part of the name. The village has a medieval

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

church dedicated to

Saint 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 ...

which built in the 14th century, during the rule of

Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria Ivan Alexander (, transliterated ''Ivan Aleksandǎr'', ; original spelling: ІѠАНЪ АЛЄѮАНдРЪ), also sometimes anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (''Tsar'') of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371,Lalkov, ''Rulers of Bulgaria'', pp ...

(as indicated by an inscription in the church). It was richly decorated with murals, although they have been badly preserved. The church donors are thought to have been Deyan and Vladislava from the church in

Kučevište Kučevište () is the largest village in the municipality of Čučer-Sandevo, North Macedonia. Demographics As of the 2021 census, Kučevište had 4,119 residents with the following ethnic composition: *Macedonians 2,404 *Serbs 1,323 *Persons fo ...

, and the church was likely built between 1331 and 1334 or 1337.

References

{{Sofia-geo-stub Villages in Sofia Province Bulgaria–Serbia border crossings