Rila Municipality () is located in southeastern

Kyustendil Province Kyustendil Province () is a province in southwestern Bulgaria, extending over an area of (constituting 2.7% of the total territory of the Republic of Bulgaria), and with a population of 106 131. It borders the provinces of Sofia, Pernik, and ...

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 ...

. Its administrative centre is

Rila Rila (, ) is the highest mountain range of Bulgaria, the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, and Southeast Europe. It is situated in southwestern Bulgaria and forms part of the Rila–Rhodope Mountains, Rhodope Massif. The highest summit is Musala at an e ...

. The municipality covers an area of , of which 54.84% is forests; only 19.3% is arable.. , the population was 3,606. Locations in Rila Municipality include: * Padala *

Pastra Pastra () is a village and a community in the southeastern part of the island of Kefalonia, Greece. It was the seat of the municipality of Eleios-Pronnoi. The community consists of the villages Pastra and Kremmydi. Pastra is 2 km northeast ...

(administrative centre) *

Rila Monastery The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery ("Sveti Ivan Rilski" (), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in th ...

* Smochevo Several peaks higher than 2,000 metres are part of the municipality, including Rilets (2,731 m), Yosifitsa (2,697 m), Kanarata (2,619 m), Zliya Zab (2,678 m), Kalin (2,667 m), Elenin Vrah (2,654 m) and Tsarev Vrah (2,378 m). The municipality also boasts 28 mountain lakes. The area is also rich in 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 ...

churches and monasteries.

Demography

Religion

According to the latest Bulgarian census of 2011, the religious composition, among those who answered the optional question on religious identification, was the following:

References

Municipalities in Kyustendil Province {{Kyustendil-geo-stub