Klyuch (, "key"; also transliterated ''Кључ, Ključ, Kliuch, Kljuch'', etc.,

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the ...

: Κλειδίον, ''Kleidion,''

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: Clidium) is a village in south-westernmost

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 ...

, part of

Petrich Municipality Petrich Municipality is a municipality in Blagoevgrad Province 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 sout ...

Blagoevgrad Province Blagoevgrad Province (, ''oblast Blagoevgrad'' or Благоевградска област, ''Blagoevgradska oblast''), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia (), (''Pirinska Makedoniya or Bulgarska Makedoniya'') is a province ('' ...

. It lies 455 metres above sea level. As of 2005, it has a population of 1,113 and the mayor is Hristo Markov. Klyuch lies at the northern foot of the

Belasitsa Belasica ( Macedonian and Bulgarian: , also translit. ''Belasitsa'' or ''Belasitza'', Ottoman Turkish: بلش Turkish: ''Beleş''), Belles (, ''Bélles'') or Kerkini (, ''Kerkíni'';), is a mountain range in the region of Macedonia in Southe ...

mountains, south of the Strumeshnitsa River, in the geographic region of Podgorie. The climate is transitional

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, with a summer minimum and a winter maximum of precipitation. The village is famous for the

Battle of Kleidion The Battle of Kleidion (; or Clidium, after the medieval name of the village of Klyuch, ; also known as the Battle of Belasitsa) took place on 29 July 1014, between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. It was the culmination of the ...

of 29 July 1014, in which

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Samuil's forces were routed by

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but t ...

's army. After the battle, Basil ordered all 14,000 Bulgarian captives blinded, with a single soldier left one-eyed to guide every hundred blinded home. Five kilometres north of the village are the ruins of Samuil's Fortress, built between 1009 and 1013, and the Samuil's Fortress National Park-Museum, created in 1982 and featuring a bronze monument to Samuil. Klyuch is also famous for several alleged cases of

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

, mostly popularized by the local Kiril Yakimov.

n international footballer Spas Delev (b. 1989) was born in Klyuch. He plays for Arda Kardzhali.

References

Villages in Blagoevgrad Province {{Blagoevgrad-geo-stub