Momchilgrad ( , ,
Turkish: Mestanlı) is a town in the very south of
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
Kardzhali Province
Kardzhali Province () is a province of southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece with the Greek regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope, and Evros to the south and east. It is 3209.1 km2 in area. Its main city is Kardzhali. It is Bulgaria's sout ...
in the southern part of the
Eastern Rhodopes. According to the 2011 census, Momchilgrad is the largest Bulgarian settlement with a
Turkish majority (75% of the total).
Population by province, municipality, settlement and ethnic identification, by 01.02.2011; Bulgarian National Statistical Institute
Notable natives include Petar Stoychev (b. 1976), the fastest swimmer across the English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
until 2012, table tennis player and coach Daniela Gergelcheva (b. 1964), Turkish weightlifter Naim Süleymanoğlu
Naim Süleymanoğlu (; 23 January 1967 – 18 November 2017) was a Bulgarian Turks, Turkish Olympic weightlifting, Olympic weightlifter. He was a seven-time World Weightlifting Championships, World Weightlifting champion and a three-time Lis ...
(1967–2017), and singer Zdravko Zhelyazkov from the Riton pop duet.
History
Momchilgrad became part of Bulgaria after the Balkan wars. The previous name of the city is Mestanlı and it is renamed to Momchilgrad in 1934.
References
External links
Official web site of Municipality Momchilgrad
Towns in Bulgaria
Cities and towns in the Rhodopes
Populated places in Kardzhali Province
{{Kardzhali-geo-stub