Kuklen ( ) is a town in southern

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

Plovdiv Province Plovdiv Province (: ''Oblast Plovdiv'', former name okrug, Plovdiv okrug) is a provinces of Bulgaria, province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, ''obshtini'', sing. общинa, ''obshtina'') on a territ ...

. It is located 7 km to the south of the nearest major city,

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 ...

, and is approximately 140 km south east of the Bulgarian 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 ...

. Kuklen was proclaimed a town on 23 May 2006, and had a population of 6,877. It is the center of Kuklen Municipality. Kuklen is notable for having, despite its low population, not only a majority

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 ...

population with several Orthodox churches, but also

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

residents and a mosque, as well as a

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

community and a Catholic place of worship, with all three religious communities living on good terms with each other.

Geography

Kuklen is located in the plains of the

Rhodopes The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) 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 Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

, 7 km. east of Plovdiv.

Population

The number of permanent residents in Kuklen is 6,881, and 6,000 more are temporary. As of February 2011, Kuklen has 5,858 residents.

History

Born in Kuklen

Recep Küpçü Recep Küpçü (; 28 September 1934 – 26 April 1976) was a Bulgarian poet and writer of Turkish people, Turkish origin who wrote in both Bulgarian language, Bulgarian and Turkish language, Turkish. Born in 1934 in the town of Kuklen, he spent ...

, Bulgarian poet of Turkish origin War memorial in Kuklen

Honor

Kuklen Point 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 ...

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 ...

is named after Kuklen.

References

Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Plovdiv Province {{Plovdiv-geo-stub