Sadovo ( ) is a small town in

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 ...

, 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 ...

, and the administrative center of Sadovo Municipality. The population was 2,600.

Geography

The city is close to the

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

River, 18 kilometers east of Plovdiv. Sadovo municipality area also includes the villages Ahmatovo, Bogdanitsa, Bolyartsi, Karadzhovo, Katunitsa, Kochevo, Milevo, Mominsko, Popovitsa, Seltsi and Cheshnegirovo. The area's population is 15 115 people (2015). During 1916, the highest absolute temperature (45.2 degrees Celsius or 113.36 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded from the Sadovo weather station. This is the highest temperature to have ever been recorded in Bulgaria. A large railway line runs through Sadovo towards Dimitrovgrad, and the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

city

Alexandroupolis Alexandroupolis (, ) or Alexandroupoli (, ) is a city in Greece and the capital of the Evros (regional unit), Evros regional unit. It is the largest city in Greek Thrace and the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, with a population of 71,75 ...

Climate

History

The oldest name of the city is accepted as "Kyuchuk Stambol" (), the Bulgarian corruption of the name "Küçük İstanbul", which means "Little Istanbul" in Turkish, through local oral tradition. Until 1881, it was "Cheshnegir Mahala" (). Sadovo began between the years 1365-1390, when the city was founded by Turkish villagers in

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

—during the time when Ottoman

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

s, such as

Murad I Murad I (; ), nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'' (from – meaning "Head of state, sovereign" in this context; 29 June 1326 – 15 June 1389) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1389. He was the son of Orhan Gazi and Nilüfer Hatun. Mura ...

and

Bayezid I Bayezid I (; ), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt (; ; – 8 March 1403), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He adopted the title of ''Sultan-i Rûm'', ''Rûm'' being the Arabic name for the Eastern Roman Empire. In 139 ...

, ruled Bulgaria. It was a Turkish and

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 ...

village in the beginning, populated only by

Turkish Muslims Islam is the most practiced religion in Turkey. Most Turkish people, Turkish Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. The established presence of Islam in the region that now constitutes modern Turkey dates back to the late ...

. The earliest testament to its existence is in a Turkish register from 1472, where it is described under the name "Cheshnegir" in "Filibe" (

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 where it is recorded that all of the villagers were Turkish Muslims. The reference can be found in the personal archive of the historian Lyubomir Vasilev from Sadovo's neighboring village, Kochevo. The "Bulgarianization" and

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

of Sadovo began during the 17th century, when in the short register from a tax for Plovdivsko from 1622, there is already evidence that in Sadovo, there were already 9 Christian households. However, up until the end of the 17th century, the village remains predominantly Muslim, even though a large increase in a Bulgarian Christian element can be seen from other documents. In another register from a tax for Plovdivsko from 1695 under the name Chashnagir, 33 families lived in the settlement, with 18 being Muslims and the other 15 Bulgarian Christians.Istanbul - BOA, MAD 3604,s.114-136 - там са описани селищата от нахията Конуш, сред които е и Садово - личен архив на Любомир Василев от село Кочево, Пловдивско.

Agriculture

Most of the people are employed in agriculture, which due to the fertile soils and the high levels of mechanization is efficient and highly productive. Major crops are apples, tomatoes, peppers, wheat, barley and rice.

Temperature record

Sadovo has the highest recorded temperature (unofficial) in

: . Officially, the highest record for Sadovo is 41.2 degrees Celsius (106.16 degrees Fahrenheit), while the lowest is -30.7 degrees Celsius (-23.26 degrees Fahreheit).

References

Populated places in Plovdiv Province Towns in Bulgaria

External links

{{Sadovo Municipality