Archaeological excavations nearChavdar suggest that the region has been settled by humans as early as 7,000 years ago.[1] The earliest evidence of a mass settlement dates back toThracian times, includingtumuli (burial mounds) which remain poorly studied.[2] According toThucydides, the areas north ofVitosha were inhabited by theTilataei and theTreri. TheTriballi were also known to have inhabited the region aroundSerdica.[2] TheSerdi, aCeltic tribe that appeared in place of the vanished Treri and Tilataei,[3] were first mentioned in 29 BC. Roman GeneralMarcus Licinius Crassus began his campaign against the Triballi in that year, and in 27 BC his troops captured Serdica.[2]
Felix Philipp Kanitz, the first person to study the Iskar Gorge area thoroughly, identified eightRomancastella, which he considered proof of the great strategic importance the Romans placed on the gorge. The road passing through it connected Roman lands fromThessaloniki all the way toDacia.[2] However, up until modern times, the gorge was poorly accessible because of its rugged terrain. As a result, the inhabitants were partially isolated from the rest of the world, self-reliant, but also safe from wars and invasions.[2] Some of the population ofMoesia thus found theIskar river area an appealing safe haven later in the5th century, when the province was threatened byHunnic andGothic raids[2] (see alsoCollapse of the Western Roman Empire in476).
Gothic assaults were followed by large-scale settlement ofSouth Slavs in territories south of theDanube in the early 580s AD.[4] TheEastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, was incapable of defending these territories at the time. With most Byzantine troops protecting the rich Asian provinces from Arab andPersian raids, even small and disorganised Slavic attacks caused much disruption throughout Moesia.[5] The numerous Slavs gradually mixed with and assimilated the native population.[6] The area remained under Byzantine control until 809 AD, whenKrum captured Serdica and massacred some 6,000 soldiers and civilians.[7] Sometime in the 10th century, construction of theBoyana Church began as well.[8]
Churches and monasteries in the area flourished during theSecond Bulgarian Empire. TsarIvan Alexander established a ring of 14 monasteries around Sredets (formerly Serdica), with rules and organisation similar to the monastery cluster onMount Athos, known asSveta Gora in Bulgarian.[9] TheSveta Gora of Sofia includes temples and monasteries throughout today's Sofia Province, spanning from Plana andVitosha Mountains in the south toDragoman and the slopes of Stara Planina in the north. Some of these were established during theFirst Bulgarian Empire or generally before Ivan Alexander's rule.[9] Apart from these monasteries, a number of other, smaller temples can be traced back to the Second Empire. This includes the Saint Nicholas church inBukovets, built byCrusaders in the 12th century.[10][11] Crusader presence was also attested aroundBov, which is believed to have been established by an eponymousFourth Crusade knight who became avassal of TsarKaloyan.[12]
A few years afterBulgaria's liberation in 1878, Bulgarian nationalists organised a coup in the Ottoman province ofEastern Rumelia and declared its unification with thePrincipality of Bulgaria.[13] TheKingdom of Serbia opposed the strengthening of its rival. Serbian kingMilan I declared war on Bulgaria on 14 November 1885, but the Serbian forces were decisively defeated at theBattle of Slivnitsa between 17 and 19 November.[13] Another decisive Bulgarian victory occurred atGurgulyat, where Bulgarian soldiers and civilian volunteers fought the Serb Moravian division and prevented it from reinforcing the main Serbian force at Slivnitsa.[14]
During World War II, a number ofresistance fighters were based in the area. The mainly Soviet-oriented resistance - the People's Liberation Rebel Army, PLRA - organised locally under the 1st Sofia Rebellion Operations Zone, particularly in the areas aroundBotevgrad andIhtiman.[15] Anti-partisan operations by the Bulgarian government military, then part of theAxis powers, had become fierce by 1944. In January 1944,Special Operations Executive MajorWilliam Frank Thompson and another British officer, Sergeant Kenneth Scott, were parachuted with radio equipment in southern Yugoslavia; their mission was to provide liaison between theBritish Army and the PLRA.[16] The two joined a group of 100 ill-equipped Bulgarian partisans and entered Bulgaria in May 1944.
After some initial success, the group was ambushed, and Thompson was captured nearEleshnitsa along with a dozen Bulgarian partisans. After being shown the severed heads of other partisans on pikes, they were tortured by government troops and their paramilitary aides, theGendarmerie.[17] Because of his Communist sympathies and fluentBulgarian andRussian, Thompson and the other resistance fighters were executed by a firing squad.[16][18] Several villages in the area were merged after the war into what is now a single village,Thompson, named after the British officer.[19]
Rila Mountain as seen from Relyovo, Samokov Municipality
With a territory of 7 020 km², Sofia Province is the second-largest in Bulgaria.[20] It also has the highest number of municipalities, 22, and borders nine other provinces as well asSerbia to the northwest. The lowest areas stand at 350 metres above sea level, whereas the highest rise above 2,900 metres, resulting in diverse terrain, soil and climatic factors.[20]
Atemperate climate with cold winters, cool springs and mild summers hampers the agricultural use of the otherwise fertile mountain valleys.[20]Stara Planina,Sredna Gora andRila are the principal mountain ranges that the province straddles, whilePlana andVitosha lie entirely within its territory.[20] The highest peak on theBalkan Peninsula,Musala, rises 2,925 metres above sea level in Rila at the southern end of the province.[21]
The precise height of Musala was only measured in 1932 by an expedition of the State Geographic Institute of theMinistry of War. Previously,Vihren in southwest Bulgaria was imprecisely measured and proclaimed to be the country's highest peak. This made Mytikas onMount Olympus inGreece, which rose only three metres higher than Vihren, the highest on the Balkan Peninsula. Locals in Bulgaria supposedly began piling up rocks on Vihren over time to restore its status, but the 1932 military expedition measured both Vihren and Musala with a margin of error of only 15 centimetres and thus put an end to the rivalry.[21]
Rila is also the source of theIskar,[22] the longest river that runs entirely within Bulgarian territory.[23] It is a tributary to theDanube and forms part of theBlack Sea river basin. The 23 km (14 mi) long Cherni (black) Iskar is considered themain stem of the river,[22] taking its source from the Chamovsko Lake (2,500 m) to the north-east of Damga Peak (2,669 m) and from there the river flows in north-eastern direction through theGovedartsi Valley, filled by the waters of the Chanakgyolski,Malyovishki and Urdini Lakes.[22] The river enters theBalkan Mountains at the town ofNovi Iskar and forms a long and spectacular gorge, whose slopes reach a height of 200 m up to 500 m at some points.[24] TheIskar Gorge reaches a length of 70 km (43 mi) between its beginning at Kurilo, a neighbourhood of Novi Iskar, and the village ofLyutibrod where it ends.[24] Other rivers flowing through the provinces territory areTopolnitsa,Nishava andMaritsa, and larger bodies of water include 60barrages anddams.[20]
The Sofia province (Област,oblast) contains 22 municipalities (singular: община,obshtina - plural: Общини,obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English andCyrillic, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population of each as of 2009.
Sofia Province'sGross regional product (GRP) was 3.11 billionleva ($1.84 billion) in 2016, with a per capita value of 13,203 leva ($7810), the third-highest nationally.[32] That year, some 9,000 companies produced 8.12 billion leva ($4.8 billion) worth of goods and services. Nearly two-thirds of businesses are in theprocessing sector and operate at a profit.[33]
Mining has been developed on a large scale since the 1950s. TheChelopech copper mine opened in 1954 and has since produced 19.7 million tonnes of ore, peaking at 512,000 tonnes annually in 1988.[34] In 1958, acopper smelter and refinery nearPirdop began operations and blended concentrates from Chelopech and two other mines in the area,Elatsite andAssarel.[34] Since its privatisation in 1997,[35] the smelter has become Bulgaria's second-largest company as a subsidiary ofAurubis.[36] Canadian companyDundee Precious Metals Inc. has acquired the Chelopech mine, wheregold concentrate is currently extracted alongside copper.[37]
Mondelez Bulgaria (formerlyKraft Foods Bulgaria) is the largestconfectionery producer nationally,[38] largely owing to the production capacity of its chocolate factory inSvoge. The factory was established in 1901, privatised in 1993,[39] and upgraded in 2008 to produce up to 365,000,000 chocolate bars annually.[40] Beverages are manufactured nearKostinbrod, where the largestinstant coffee factory in Southeast Europe,[40] as well as the mainCoca-Cola bottling facility in Bulgaria, are located.[41]
Ski slopes at the Borovets resort
Botevgrad is a majormicroelectronics R&D and manufacturing centre.[42]Microchips,integrated circuits,sensors and automotive electronics are all produced by private companies on the grounds of the former "Mikroelektronika" state-owned factories.[43] Computer manufacturing was also thriving inPravets during the Socialist era and by 1988 Bulgaria seemed set to become a major exporter of computers to the West.[44]Pravetz models manufactured in the town accounted for 40% of all computers used in theEastern Bloc in the 1980s.[45] The Pravets manufacturing plant became defunct after the collapse of Communism,[46] but a high-voltage electronics factory owned bySiemens has taken its place.[47]
Bulgaria's oldest ski resort,Borovets, is located nearSamokov.[48] Its high annual influx of tourists has given a boost to the local property market[49] and has drawn foreign investment in hospitality and recreation.[50]
^The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond,ISBN0-521-22717-8, 1992, page 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin"
Дончев (Donchev), Дончо (Doncho); Каракашев (Karakashev), Христо (Hristo) (2004).Теми по физическа и социално-икономическа география на България [Topics on Physical and Social-Economic Geography of Bulgaria] (in Bulgarian). София (Sofia): Ciela.ISBN954-649-717-7.
Мичев (Michev), Николай (Nikolay); Михайлов (Mihaylov), Цветко (Tsvetko); Вапцаров (Vaptsarov), Иван (Ivan); Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev), Светлин (Svetlin) (1980).Географски речник на България [Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria] (in Bulgarian). София (Sofia): Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura).
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