Strelcha ( ) is a small

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 ...

n town with a population of 4,284 . The town lies 13 km to the east of

Panagyurishte Panagyurishte (, also transliterated ''Panagjurište'', ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, situated in a small valley in the Sredna Gora mountains. It is 91 km east of Sofia, 43 km north of Pazardzhik. The town is ...

and 41 km to the north of

Pazardzhik Pazardzhik ( ) is a city situated along the banks of the Maritsa river, southern Bulgaria. It is the centre of Pazardzhik Province and Pazardzhik Municipality. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain and in the Pazardzhik-Plovdiv Field, a ...

. It is a capital of homonymous municipality, part of

Pazardzhik Province Pazardzhik Province ( ''Oblast Pazardzhik'', former name Pazardzhik okrug) is a province in Southern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre: the city of Pazardzhik. The territory is that is divided into 12 municipaliti ...

. It is situated in a valley in the southern skirts of the

Sredna Gora Sredna Gora ( ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the river Iskar (river), Iskar to the west and the elbow of river Tundzha north of the city of Yambol to the east. ...

mountain. The favourable

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...

, nature and mineral water springs, combined with the rich history and natural sights, have turned Strelcha into a national spa resort all around the year. Even if the town's tourism industry has decayed somewhat in the early post-communist period, its tourist product has started to revive in the last couple of years. Arguably, the most important sight in the town is the

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 ...

Archangel Michael Church Monument dedicated to the citizens of Strelcha that were killed during the

April Uprising The April Uprising () was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The rebellion was suppressed by irregular Ottoman bashi-bazouk units that engaged in indiscriminate slaughter of both rebels ...

of 1876,

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

and WW1. Their names can be seen inscribed on both sides of the church. The rose gardens in Strelcha spread over 3,000 decares, as this is one of the biggest

rose oil Rose oil (rose otto, attar of rose, attar of roses, or rose essence) is an essential oil that is extracted from the petals of various types of rose. ''Rose ottos'' are extracted through steam distillation, while ''rose absolutes'' are obtained t ...

production regions in Bulgaria. The highest quality of rose oil is produced in the municipality. Besides roses, since the 1990s and 2000s Strelcha successfully cultivated lavender, from which first-class essential oil is extracted. Outside Strelcha, the road to the town of

Koprivshtitsa Koprivshtitsa (, pronounced , from the Bulgarian word , ''kopriva'', meaning "Urtica, nettle") is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, historic town in the Koprivshtitsa Municipality in Sofia Province, central Bulgaria, lying on the Topolnit ...

(24 km) has views of natural

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock (geology), rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock Geological formation, formation ...

s. Three kilometres to the southeast of Strelcha one can see the Zhaba Mogila ("Frog Mound") inside which archeologists have found a

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

temple. The mound is one of the biggest in Bulgaria — its height is more than 20 m, while its diameter is about 80–90 m. The two chambers and the façade are built of large, masterly carved stone blocks, connected with iron conjunctures and covered with lead. The biggest of these blocks measures 2.6 m by 0.6 m. Their arrangement is regarded as flawless. A tunnel with a length of 75 m has been dug below the mound and is planned to be transformed into a museum. A second stone construction, believed to have served as a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

, has been found in the northwest part of the mound. It consists of three halls with a total area of 25 square metres. 2.5 km to the south of Strelcha one can see the remains of the Strelcha Fortress (''Kaleto'') believed to date back to the 9–10th century A.D. The fortress was built on the right bank of the

Luda Yana The Luda Yana (, meaning "Crazy Yana") is a 74 km-long river in southern Bulgaria, a left tributary of the river Maritsa. There are several version about the river's etymology. According to geographer Pavel Deliradev, the name comes from a co ...

River on a separate hill; the fortress walls surrounded by a rectangular space with a length of 140 m and a width of 50–60 m. Additionally, there are some preserved remains of several other fortresses to the south and southeast of Strelcha.

Honours

Strelcha Spur on

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after the town. {{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Pazardzhik Province Spa towns in Bulgaria