Chiprovtsi
Encyclopedia
Chiprovtsi is a small town and municipality
in northwestern Bulgaria
, administratively part of Montana Province
. It lies on the shores of the river Ogosta
in the western Balkan Mountains
, very close to the Bulgarian-Serbia
n border. A town of about 2,000 inhabitants, Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of a municipality that also covers nine nearby villages.
Chiprovtsi is thought to have been founded in the Late Middle Ages
as a mining
and metalsmithing
centre. Attracting German
ore
miners who introduced Roman Catholicism to the area, the town grew in importance as a cultural, economic and religious centre of the Bulgarian Catholics
and the entire Bulgarian northwest during the first few centuries of Ottoman
rule. The apogee of this upsurge was the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising
of 1688. After the suppression of the uprising, some of the town's population fled to Habsburg-ruled lands; those unable to flee were killed or enslaved by the Ottomans.
Deserted for about 30 years, the town was repopulated by Eastern Orthodox
Bulgarians
, beginning in the 1720s. It was following this new settlement that Chiprovtsi became a major centre of the Bulgarian carpet
industry. Other traditional industries have been stock breeding
, agriculture
and fur trade
. Today, Chiprovtsi municipality experiences a declining population
and above-average unemployment
. However, large-scale investment in the extraction of the local fluorite
deposits and the development of alternative tourism
help to sustain the economy.
Ivan Duridanov, Chiprovtsi's original name was Kipurovets (Кипуровец). The current form gradually emerged through a sound shift
and a syncope. The name is of Slavic
origin, but may be linked to the archaic Greek
loanword kipos (κήπος, "garden"), a word also borrowed by Serbian
. Some researchers derive the toponym
from the personal name
Kipra or Kipro, implying beauty and sprightliness. Another popular hypothesis, although rejected by Duridanov, links the name to Latin
cuprum ("copper
") due to the numerous copper deposits and mines in the region in Ancient Roman
times.
The name was first mentioned in a western source, namely a Latin document of 1565, as Chiprovatz. Similar forms such as Chipurovatz, Chiprouvatz, Chiprovotzii, Chiprovtzi, Kiprovazo, Chiprovatzium, Kiprovetz and Kiprovtzi have been used throughout the 16th–17th centuries. The attested Serbo-Croatian
pronunciation of the suffix /at͡s/ as opposed to standard Bulgarian /ɛt͡s/ is explained with the influence of the so-called "Illyria
n language", a Dalmatia
n form of Croatian language
used by the Franciscan
clerics in the town in the 17th century.
The town has been conventionally divided into several neighbourhoods (ma(h)ali
); most are named according to the profession and social status of their residents. In 1888, D. Marinov recorded the existence of the Srebril or Srebarna ("Silversmiths'"), Kyurkchiyska ("Furriers'"), Pazarska ("Merchants'"), Tabashka ("Leatherworkers'"), Partsal and Trap neighbourhoods. The existence of a Saksonska (Regio Saxonium, "Saxon
") neighbourhood was also attested until the 17th century. Another actively used pair of toponyms is Dolni kray ("Lower Part") and Gorni kray ("Upper Part"), referring to the town neighbourhoods closer to the river or the mountain respectively.
Chiprovtsi Point
and Chiprovtsi Islets
in Rugged Island
in the South Shetland Islands
, Antarctica are named after Chiprovtsi.
Chiprovtsi is situated in a small valley at the foot of the Chiprovtsi Mountain, a high northern branch of the western Balkan Mountains. The Chiprovtsi Mountain forms the border between Bulgaria and the neighbouring Serbia. It is 35 kilometres (21.7 mi) long and features several peaks around 2000 metres (6,561.7 ft), including Midzhur
(2168 m (7,112.9 ft)), Martinova Chuka (2011 m (6,597.8 ft)), Golyama Chuka (1967 m (6,453.4 ft)), Kopren (1964 m (6,443.6 ft)), Tri Chuki (1938 m (6,358.3 ft)) and Vrazha Glava (1936 m (6,351.7 ft)). The Ogosta River, a right tributary of the Danube
, originates from the Chiprovtsi Mountain and flows northeast through the Danubian Plain
to join the Danube in Vratsa Province
. Just northeast of the town is another mountain, Shiroka Planina, a branch of the Fore-Balkan Mountains. The region is rich in metal
and mineral
deposits.
Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of the eponymous Chiprovtsi Municipality
, located in the western part of Montana Province. The municipality has an area of 286.9 square kilometres (110.8 sq mi), which is 7.89% of the provinces' territory and 0.26% of that of Bulgaria. To the east, Chiprovtsi municipality borders Montana
and Georgi Damyanovo
municipalities of the same province; its southern neighbour is also Georgi Damyanovo. To the west are the Serbian border and Chuprene
municipality of Vidin Province
and to the north is Ruzhintsi
municipality of Vidin Province. Besides the town, the municipality includes nine villages, namely Belimel
, Chelyustnitsa
, Gorna Kovachitsa
, Gorna Luka
, Martinovo
, Mitrovtsi
, Prevala
, Ravna
and Zhelezna
. The town lies 155 km (96.3 mi) from the Bulgarian capital Sofia
, 35 km (21.7 mi) from the provincial capital Montana, 44 km (27.3 mi) from Berkovitsa
and 18 km (11.2 mi) from the national border of Bulgaria and Serbia; the nearest Serbian municipality is Surdulica
.
Chiprovtsi municipality falls in the humid continental climate
climate zone, with a slight mountain influence
. The average year-round temperature is 9.7 °C (49.5 °F); the average monthly temperature is −1 or 0 °C (30.2 or 32 °F) in January and 20 °C (68 °F) in July. The average yearly precipitation
is 776–816 millimetres. The spring is short and rainy, while the summer is generally hot and dry. In the winter, the area is subject to a strong northeastern wind and a temperature inversion
in the valleys.
Of the 38 rivers and rivulets that flow across the municipality, the most important are the Ogosta and the Prevalska. There is a water reservoir
near Martinovo and a hydroelectric
plant at Zhelezna. There are no mineral spring
s in the municipality. Chiprovtsi municipality is home to 1,250 species
of plants, including a large number of herb
s and deciduous
trees; some of the trees are 150–300 years old.
Of the municipality's area of 286.9 km² (110.8 sq mi), 50.51% or 144.9 km² (55.9 sq mi) are covered by forest
s, 42.73% or 122.6 km² (47.3 sq mi) constitute arable land
and 5.71% or 16.4 km² (6.3 sq mi) are urban area
s. The remaining 1.05% are composed of water areas, mines and infrastructure
.
composition of the municipality is homogeneous; 4,722 people or 99.21% identify themselves as Bulgarians
and 38 people or 0.79% as Roma
. Of the Roma, three quarters live in the Barzan neighbourhood of Martinovo and arrived from around Asenovgrad
, the rest are residents of Chelyustnitsa and descend from Berkovitsa.
Since 1956, the municipality has experienced population ageing
and rural depopulation, as many people have migrated to larger cities such as Montana, Vidin
, Vratsa
and Sofia. The ratio of urban to rural population is 49.37% to 50.63%, indicating an almost equal distribution between the town of Chiprovtsi and the surrounding villages. As of 2005, the unemployment
in the municipality is 23.5%, much higher than the Bulgarian average of 7.75% according to 2007 data.
It is known that the area around Chiprovtsi has been inhabited since the time of the Thracians
and later the Roman Empire
, when the local metal deposits were exploited. According to historian V. Velkov, the valley of the Ogosta was inhabited by Thracians since the early 1st millennium BC. According to ancient accounts, the area was populated by the Thracian tribe of the Triballi
or a related group of Thracians. The Romans conquered what is today the Bulgarian northwest after 29 BC and consolidated their authority in the region under Emperor
Trajan
(98–117). There are remains of Roman fortifications around Chiprovtsi, such as the Latin Fortress ruins in the Kula area, where coins dating to the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) and Commodus
(180–192) have been unearthed, and the Big Ruins south of the town. The gold
, silver
, lead
, copper
and iron
mines brought sizable revenue to the Romans, who took good care to protect these from barbarian
attacks.
With the arrival of the Seven Slavic tribes
and the Bulgars
in the 6th–7th century and the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire
in 680 in the former lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire
), the entire region was soon incorporated into the Bulgarian realm. After a period of renewed Byzantine rule in 1018–1185, it was part of the Second Bulgarian Empire
until its conquest by the Ottomans in the late 14th or early 15th century.
The presence of the German ore miners, known locally as sasi (саси, Saxons
), cannot be accurately dated. Some researchers estimate their arrival in Chiprovtsi to be in the mid-14th century, the time of the last Bulgarian emperors, while others claim they reached the town during the early Ottoman rule
of Bulgaria. Their exact number and place of origin are also vague, although the German miners were widely recruited as specialists in medieval Wallachia
, Transylvania
and Serbia. In Chiprovtsi, they are thought to have arrived as a single group of about 50–60 people with their families. They were probably recruited through special contracts and likely received some privilege
s compared to the native Bulgarian population. In Chiprovtsi's mines, they served as technicians and overseers, contributing to the technological progress of mining in the region. They were, however, gradually assimilated by the local Bulgarians
by the mid-15th century, as indicated by German name
s with Slavic suffixes in the population registers. The Germans left behind the name of one of the neighbourhoods, still known as the "Saxon" neighbourhood in the 17th century, and Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion in the town.
In the second half of the 14th century, a certain number of Bosnian Croats
and Ragusan
merchants arrived in Chiprovtsi and its surroundings, accompanied by some Franciscan
clerics from Catholic Franciscan province of Silver Bosnia
. According to the research of Croatian historian Vitomir Belaj, the Catholic Franciscans had arrived from medieval Bosnia in western Bulgaria at the time of Bosnian vicar Bartul Alvernski ("Bartholomew of Alverno"), who himself originated from Italy
, in 1366. Among the newcoming settlers there were some noblemen as well. According to Belaj, these included members of the Parchevich family, the ancestral house of the Peyachevich family
.
, Herzegovina
and other places" had been rented.
The town of Chiprovtsi and several of the surrounding villages were administratively organized as a has, or a private possession of the sultan's royal family
and later of the sultan's mother. The special status of the area meant that the local Christians
would not be subject to the usual discriminatory laws, but would have to pay an annual tribute of silver to the sultan. Later on, the estate was organized as a waqf
, a land devoted for Muslim
religious or charitable purposes. Chiprovtsi and the region were inhabited exclusively by Christians and they had the privilege to perform their rituals in public without discrimination. The only Turkish
person in the town was the sultan's representative and no Turks were allowed to settle there, as the local Bulgarians enjoyed self-government to a certain degree and were administered by an elected council of eminent Bulgarian residents (knezove). A fragment of the area's pre-Ottoman Bulgarian administrative division
may have also been preserved, as it is referred to under the Slavic name voivodeship
in some documents.
By the 1520s, Chiprovtsi was still a minor centre of mining activity compared to other places in the empire. In that period, it brought a revenue of 47,553 akçe
, as compared to Kratovo
's 100,000 and Srebrenica
's 477,000. The Catholic miners are known to have arrived by that time, as the Catholic Church of Saint Mary had been built around 1487, but it was not until the years after the 1520s that Chiprovtsi attracted more colonists and turned into one of the Ottoman Empire's leading mining centres. By 1528, Chiprovtsi had a mint
and was manufacturing silver coins. In 1585, the miners were forced to work night and day and had to pay increased taxes, leading to protests and the danger that they may migrate. By the time, Chiprovtsi was already providing a revenue of 1,400,000 akçe, making it one of the empire's prime mining and metalworking regions.
In the mid-16th century, Chiprovtsi began to attract the attention of Catholic officials from Rome
. In 1565, the archbishop of Antivari
(today Bar
, Montenegro
) Ambrosius arrived in the town as an apostolic visitor
. In 1592–1595, the Bosnian Croat cleric Peter Solinat and a group of Franciscan
s established a Catholic mission in the town. In 1601, Solinat was appointed bishop of Sofia with his seat in Chiprovtsi by Pope
Clement VIII
. He chose to reside in Chiprovtsi because Sofia's Catholic population was limited to a handful of Ragusan
merchant families.
. Named the "flower of Bulgaria" in that period, some have deemed the town's prosperity the Balkans' only participation in the Renaissance
, along with that of Dalmatia. Many members of the local élite
were educated in Rome, particularly at the Collegio Clementino
and the Sapienza University. Gradually, the foreign Franciscans were replaced by locals and in the 1620s the Bulgarian Catholics formed a separate autonomous entity directly subordinate to the Pope, the Bulgarian Custody. Solinat was succeeded by a Bulgarian bishop, Iliya Marinov of Chiprovtsi, who was in turn followed by another local, Petar Bogdan Bakshev, who travelled to Wallachia
, Warsaw
, Vienna
, Rome and Ancona
looking for funds and support for the community. In the 1640s, the Bulgarian Custody gave way to the Diocese of Marcianopolis
presided by Petar Parchevich
and the Diocese of Nicopoli
headed by Filip Stanislavov and represented in Chiprovtsi by Franchesko Soymirovich. The town and the surrounding areas were not entirely Catholic: a significant part of the population was Orthodox; the Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery
still exists today.
The evolution of Chiprovtsi from a mining town to a trade hub owes much to the settlement of merchants from the Republic of Ragusa
(today Dubrovnik
, Croatia
) and the quality of the local metalworking, as well as the lack of permanent Ottoman presence and the privileges enjoyed by the population. By the mid-17th century, mining was in decline, as the silver deposits had been all but exhausted (in 1666 there remained only 16 iron smelteries), forcing the population to seek a more profitable occupation. Since 1659, the Ragusan merchants from Provadiya
altered their traditional route to Dubrovnik through Sofia in order to visit Chiprovtsi. The local residents produced and traded with leather
, carpets, fabrics, clothes, remarkable gold and silver jewellery, metal tools, cattle, etc. Initially, the Chiprovtsi merchants would only visit Vidin, Pirot
, Sofia and Vratsa. Later, however, they appeared at the markets in Istanbul
, Thessaloniki
, Bucharest
, Odessa
, Braşov
, Sibiu
, Belgrade
, Buda
and Pest, with a particularly strong presence in Wallachia and Transylvania, where they established permanent agencies and sizable companies in Târgovişte
, Câmpulung
and Râmnic
during the rule of Matei Basarab
(1632–1654). The international trade broadened the outlook of the locals and introduced the ideas of the age and the European culture of the time to the region.
A Catholic monastery was built during the time of Peter Solinat and developed as an educational centre through its school; it was referred to as one of the most prestigious schools in the Bulgarian lands in that period. The school was partially foreign-funded and provided education in grammar
, arithmetic
, logic
and philosophy
to 75–80 students. The teachers were often Bulgarian graduates of the Collegio Clementino
in Rome and the languages of education were Latin, Bulgarian and "Illyrian", a Croatian
form written usually in the Latin alphabet
but sometimes in Cyrillic
. The school also had a library, one of the first in Bulgaria. Since the 1630s, the eminent writers and translators from Chiprovtsi, most notably Petar Bogdan Bakshev and Petar Parchevich
, formed the so-called "Chiprovtsi Literary School", issuing books about the history of Bulgaria, as well as on religious topics.
As prosperous as the region was, it was not unharmed by the constant Ottoman–Habsburg wars and was often the target of Turkish, Tatar
and Hungarian rebel raids. By the 1630s, the idea of an organized anti-Ottoman revolt had reached the town of Chiprovtsi. In his 1650 account to the senate of the Republic of Venice
Petar Parchevich
described the long preparations for an armed struggle and the support-seeking visits of his fellow townsmen to the kings of Poland
and Austria
. Since then, the inhabitants of Chiprovtsi waited for the suitable moment when they would be able to instigate an effective uprising and continued to co-operate with the leaders of the European realms.
On 12 September 1683, the Ottomans were routed by the forces of Europe at the Battle of Vienna
. In early 1684, Austria, Poland and Venice concluded an anti-Ottoman pact; they were joined by Russia
in 1686 to form the Holy League
. It was clear at that time that the decisive moment was near. The leaders of Chiprovtsi assessed that after the imminent capture of Belgrade by the League in 1688 their European allies would reach Sofia and end the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. Thus, they revolted in the spring of 1688. The reach of the uprising cannot be exactly determined, but scholars such as S. Damyanov believe it included Chiprovtsi and the neighbourhing Kopilovtsi, Klisura and Zhelezna and thousands of Bulgarians from the entire Bulgarian northwest. Although the leaders were mostly Catholics, the bulk of the insurgents were Orthodox. It is known that the rebellion was led by over 200 voivodes of separate detachments. The insurgents were aided by six regiments of regular Habsburg army and artillery under General Heißler and managed to briefly capture the town of Kutlovitsa (modern Montana), but were ultimately crushed by the Ottomans and their Hungarian ally Imre Thököly
. On 18–19 October, the Ottomans stormed Chiprovtsi and retook it from the rebels, capturing over 2,000 people. About 3,000 natives of the area, guarded by the remaining insurrectionary units, managed to flee beyond the Danube. Most of those settled in the Habsburg-ruled realms, founding a major Bulgarian colony in the Banat
known as the "Banat Bulgarians
", as well as colonies in Deva
and Alvinc (Vinţu de Jos
) in Transylvania and Szentendre
in modern Hungary
. The town itself was plundered, burned down and deserted and its links to the West
were largely severed.
s, but this proved unsuccessful as in 1717 the same Hungarians were moved to the Rousse
barracks and sent to fight at Niš
.
Ultimately, the region was repopulated by Orthodox Bulgarians, beginning in the 1720s. In 1737–1738, the sultan amnestied
the rebels and permitted the return of the insurgents' property in 1741, though none of the former residents is known to have returned. In the 1720s–1730s, Chiprovtsi had only 12 inhabited houses; by the 1750s, those had reached 150. The Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery had been reestablished in 1703 by a certain Zhivko who took the ecclesiastical name of Zoticus. As the interrupted mining was apparently not continued after the uprising and the international trade links had been severed, the locals switched to cattle breeding, agriculture, fur trade and later carpet weaving as their main occupation.
The western traveller Ami Boué
, who visited the town in 1836–1838, reported that "mainly young girls, under shelters or in corridors, engage in carpet
weaving
. They earn only five franc
s a month and the payment was even lower before". By 1868, the annual production of carpets in Chiprovtsi had surpassed 14,000 square metres. Following the Russo-Turkish War in 1877–1878, Chiprovtsi, along with all of northern Bulgaria
and the region around Sofia, became part of the newly-liberated Principality of Bulgaria
, the predecessor of modern Bulgaria. In 1896, almost 1,400 women from Chiprovtsi and the region were engaged in carpet weaving. In 1920, the locals founded the Manual Labour carpet-weaving cooperative society, the first of its kind in the country.
In the 1950s, ore output was renewed in the region, briefly revitalizing Chiprovtsi through the influx of young and highly-educated people. On 12 September 1968, Chiprovtsi was officially proclaimed a town
by the National Assembly of Bulgaria
. In Socialist times, the town had a factory that produced AK-47
magazines and employed about 400 people. After the democratic changes in 1989
, mining was discontinued again due to a lack of funds, the factory was closed and the carpet industry has been in decline as it had lost its firm foreign markets. As a result, the town and the municipality have been experiencing a demographic crisis.
The municipal government
consists of a mayor
(kmet), a deputy mayor and a secretary. Since 2007, the municipality has been governed by Zaharin Ivanov Zamfirov of Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" who won the municipal elections with 1,615 votes or 62.67% against Antoaneta Todorova Kostova of the Bulgarian Socialist Party
who amassed 962 votes or 37.33%. Two villages in the municipality are eligible to elect their own mayor, Prevala and Zhelezna.
The municipal administration is divided into two branches, the common and specialized administration. The common administration is further divided into the "Information Services" and "Financial-economical Activities and Handling of Property" departments; the specialized administration includes the "Planning and Distribution of the Budget" and "Territorial and Village Planning and Building" departments. The municipality has no separate court
or prosecutor
's office and is instead serviced by the Montana provincial court and office. The local police station
is subordinate to the one in Montana. There is a Municipal Land Commission, part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
, and a Municipal Social Service. The Municipal Land Commission takes care of land and forest distribution and the Municipal Social Service oversees financial aid
and supports the disabled
.
The town has a primary school (grades 1–4) and a high school
(grades 4–12); both claim to be successors of the school founded in 1624. The two schools service the entire municipality, as the six schools in the larger villages have been closed. In 1977, the high school was visited by about 600 students; the number slightly declined to 400 in 1989. In 2008, it was only visited by 142 children. Chiprovtsi's kindergarten
is the only one remaining in the municipality of formerly 15.
The carpet
(kilim
) industry remains dominant in the town. Carpets have been crafted according to traditional designs, but in recent years it is up to the customers to decide the pattern of the carpet they have ordered. The production of a single 3 by carpet takes about 50 days; primarily women engage in carpet weaving. Work is entirely manual and all used materials are natural; the primary material is wool
, coloured using plant or mineral dye
s. The local carpets have been prized at exhibitions in London
, Paris
, Liège and Brussels
. The municipality has also invested in the development of tourism
and many private houses have been turned into small family hotels or guesthouses. In 2004, 65 people were engaged in the tourism industry; in the same year, the municipality was visited by 2,350 tourists, of whom were 254 foreigners. In terms of economic indicators, the municipality ranks around the high average: it is 113th of 264 municipalities in Bulgaria by GDP per capita and 67th by Human Development Index
.
In September 2008, it was reported that one of the few fluorite
deposits in Europe located near Chiprovtsi would be developed by a Bulgarian company that had leased the mine for 20 years. The company has invested BGN
14.5 million and aims to extract 150,000 tonnes of raw material and produce 50,000 tonnes of pure fluorite a year. As of 2008, the company employs 73 miners, all former workers in the closed local mines, and expects their number to reach 150.
The local Bulgarians traditionally belong to the ethnographic
group of the Torlaks and speak a transitional Bulgarian dialect
, the Belogradchik dialect
. Most of the population are adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
. The municipality has 30 registered cultural monuments and 12 consecrated stone crosses, of which eight in Chiprovtsi. Such crosses are typical for the Bulgarian northwest and each is dedicated to a saint
: they serve both demarcating and religious purposes. Most of the crosses are not dated, with the notable exceptions of Saint Demetrius
—1755, Saints Peter and Paul
—1781 and Holy Mother of God
—1874.
A notable cultural trait of Chiprovtsi shared with much of the region is the veneration of a family patron saint
, named svetets ("saint") and akin to Serbian slava
. The practice exists since time immemorial
and the family saint is thought to have been chosen by the taking of a random candle
by an unaware person. The svetets is associated to the family house: when a daughter-in-law comes to live there, she accepts the family saint of the home, and when a family member or a foreign settler moves out or builds a new house, they adopt a new svetets.
Chiprovtsi has a museum of history that occupies two old-style buildings and features four exhibitions. These present the domestic life from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the 17th-century heyday until today, as well as works of the Chiprovtsi goldsmithing and carpet industry. The town has an Eastern Orthodox church
dedicated to the Ascension of Jesus; the remains of the old Roman Catholic church of Saint Marty have also been preserved. The Chiprovtsi Monastery is situated outside the town; there are ruins of several other Orthodox churches and another monastery.
The town has a community cultural centre (chitalishte
) with branches in eight of the villages in the municipality. The chitalishte has a youth dancing group, a folk music
group, a theatrical
group, a folk ritual and customs reproduction group and other similar groups. The nine libraries of the Chiprovtsi chitalishte and its branches house 65,975 volumes of books.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in northwestern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, administratively part of Montana Province
Montana Province
Montana Province is a province in northwestern Bulgaria, bordering Serbia in the southwest and Romania in the north. It spreads its area between the Danube river and Balkan mountain. As of February 2011, the province has a population of 148,098 inhabitants, on territory of 3,635.5 km²...
. It lies on the shores of the river Ogosta
Ogosta
The Ogosta , is a river in Northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. It takes it source from Vrazha Glava Peak on the border with Serbia. The towns of Chiprovtsi, Montana and Miziya are situated on the river's banks....
in the western Balkan Mountains
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...
, very close to the Bulgarian-Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n border. A town of about 2,000 inhabitants, Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of a municipality that also covers nine nearby villages.
Chiprovtsi is thought to have been founded in the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
as a mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
and metalsmithing
Smith (metalwork)
A metalsmith, often shortened to smith, is a person involved in making metal objects. In contemporary use a metalsmith is a person who uses metal as a material, uses traditional metalsmithing techniques , whose work thematically relates to the practice or history of the practice, or who engages in...
centre. Attracting German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
miners who introduced Roman Catholicism to the area, the town grew in importance as a cultural, economic and religious centre of the Bulgarian Catholics
Roman Catholicism in Bulgaria
Roman Catholicism is the third largest religious congregation in Bulgaria, after Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam. It has roots in the country since the Middle Ages and is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome.As an entity, the Catholic...
and the entire Bulgarian northwest during the first few centuries of Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
rule. The apogee of this upsurge was the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising
Chiprovtsi Uprising
The Chiprovtsi Uprising was an uprising against Ottoman rule organized in northwestern Bulgaria by Roman Catholic Bulgarians, but also involving many Eastern Orthodox Christians...
of 1688. After the suppression of the uprising, some of the town's population fled to Habsburg-ruled lands; those unable to flee were killed or enslaved by the Ottomans.
Deserted for about 30 years, the town was repopulated by Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
, beginning in the 1720s. It was following this new settlement that Chiprovtsi became a major centre of the Bulgarian carpet
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
industry. Other traditional industries have been stock breeding
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
, agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
. Today, Chiprovtsi municipality experiences a declining population
Population decline
Population decline can refer to the decline in population of any organism, but this article refers to population decline in humans. It is a term usually used to describe any great reduction in a human population...
and above-average unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
. However, large-scale investment in the extraction of the local fluorite
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It is an isometric mineral with a cubic habit, though octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon...
deposits and the development of alternative tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
help to sustain the economy.
Name
According to linguistLinguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
Ivan Duridanov, Chiprovtsi's original name was Kipurovets (Кипуровец). The current form gradually emerged through a sound shift
Sound change
Sound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures...
and a syncope. The name is of Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
origin, but may be linked to the archaic Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
loanword kipos (κήπος, "garden"), a word also borrowed by Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
. Some researchers derive the toponym
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
from the personal name
Personal name
A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...
Kipra or Kipro, implying beauty and sprightliness. Another popular hypothesis, although rejected by Duridanov, links the name to Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
cuprum ("copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
") due to the numerous copper deposits and mines in the region in Ancient Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times.
The name was first mentioned in a western source, namely a Latin document of 1565, as Chiprovatz. Similar forms such as Chipurovatz, Chiprouvatz, Chiprovotzii, Chiprovtzi, Kiprovazo, Chiprovatzium, Kiprovetz and Kiprovtzi have been used throughout the 16th–17th centuries. The attested Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
pronunciation of the suffix /at͡s/ as opposed to standard Bulgarian /ɛt͡s/ is explained with the influence of the so-called "Illyria
Illyria
In classical antiquity, Illyria was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the Illyrians....
n language", a Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n form of Croatian language
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
used by the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
clerics in the town in the 17th century.
The town has been conventionally divided into several neighbourhoods (ma(h)ali
Mahala
Mahala is a Balkan word for "neighbourhood" or "quarter", a section of a rural or urban settlement, dating to the times of the Ottoman Empire. It was brought to the area through Ottoman Turkish mahalle, but it originates in Arabic mähallä, from the root meaning "to settle", "to occupy"...
); most are named according to the profession and social status of their residents. In 1888, D. Marinov recorded the existence of the Srebril or Srebarna ("Silversmiths'"), Kyurkchiyska ("Furriers'"), Pazarska ("Merchants'"), Tabashka ("Leatherworkers'"), Partsal and Trap neighbourhoods. The existence of a Saksonska (Regio Saxonium, "Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
") neighbourhood was also attested until the 17th century. Another actively used pair of toponyms is Dolni kray ("Lower Part") and Gorni kray ("Upper Part"), referring to the town neighbourhoods closer to the river or the mountain respectively.
Chiprovtsi Point
Chiprovtsi Point
Chiprovtsi Point is a point projecting from the north coast of Rugged Island off the west coast of Byers Peninsula of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, and forming the east side of the entrance to Nishava Cove. Situated west of Ivan Vladislav Point, and ...
and Chiprovtsi Islets
Chiprovtsi Point
Chiprovtsi Point is a point projecting from the north coast of Rugged Island off the west coast of Byers Peninsula of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, and forming the east side of the entrance to Nishava Cove. Situated west of Ivan Vladislav Point, and ...
in Rugged Island
Rugged Island (South Shetland Islands)
Rugged Island is an island long and wide, lying west of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. Surface area . The island's summit San Stefano Peak rises to above sea level. Rugged Island is located at...
in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
, Antarctica are named after Chiprovtsi.
Geography
Midzor
Midžor is a peak in the Balkan Mountains, situated on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. At , it is the highest peak of the Western Balkan Mountains, as well as of Central SerbiaThe highest peak of Serbia is officially Đeravica in the Prokletije mountain range at , but is located in Kosovo....
(2168 m (7,112.9 ft)), Martinova Chuka (2011 m (6,597.8 ft)), Golyama Chuka (1967 m (6,453.4 ft)), Kopren (1964 m (6,443.6 ft)), Tri Chuki (1938 m (6,358.3 ft)) and Vrazha Glava (1936 m (6,351.7 ft)). The Ogosta River, a right tributary of the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, originates from the Chiprovtsi Mountain and flows northeast through the Danubian Plain
Danubian Plain (Bulgaria)
The Danubian Plain constitutes the northern part of Bulgaria, situated north of the Balkan Mountains and south of the Danube. Its western border is the Timok River and to the east it borders the Black Sea. The plain has an area of . It is about long and wide.The relief of the Danubian Plain is...
to join the Danube in Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province , former name Vratsa okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in the northwestern part of the country, between Danube river in the north and Stara Planina mountain in the south. It is named after its main town - Vratsa...
. Just northeast of the town is another mountain, Shiroka Planina, a branch of the Fore-Balkan Mountains. The region is rich in metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
and mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
deposits.
Chiprovtsi is the administrative centre of the eponymous Chiprovtsi Municipality
Chiprovtsi Municipality
Chiprovtsi Municipality is a small frontier municipality in Montana Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located on the northern slopes of western Stara Planina mountain and the area of the so called Fore-Balkan. It is named after its administrative centre - the town of Chiprovtsi...
, located in the western part of Montana Province. The municipality has an area of 286.9 square kilometres (110.8 sq mi), which is 7.89% of the provinces' territory and 0.26% of that of Bulgaria. To the east, Chiprovtsi municipality borders Montana
Montana, Bulgaria
- Elite High Scools :*Foreign Language HS "Petar Bogdan". Emphasis on English and German language proficiency. Recognized and praised for its scholars' academic accomplishments worldwide. http://gpchemont.com/sitegpche/...
and Georgi Damyanovo
Georgi Damyanovo
Georgi Damyanovo is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Montana Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Georgi Damyanovo Municipality, which lies in the southern part of Montana Province....
municipalities of the same province; its southern neighbour is also Georgi Damyanovo. To the west are the Serbian border and Chuprene
Chuprene
Chuprene is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Vidin Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Chuprene Municipality, which lies in the southern part of Vidin Province...
municipality of Vidin Province
Vidin Province
Vidin Province is the northwesternmost province of Bulgaria. It borders Serbia to the west and Romania to the northeast. Its administrative centre is the city of Vidin on the Danube river. The area is divided into 11 municipalities...
and to the north is Ruzhintsi
Ruzhintsi
Ruzhintsi is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Vidin Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Ruzhintsi Municipality, which lies in the southeastern part of Vidin Province. Ruzhintsi is located 54 kilometres from the provincial capital Vidin and 43 kilometres from...
municipality of Vidin Province. Besides the town, the municipality includes nine villages, namely Belimel
Belimel
Belimel is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.Belimel Bay in Trinity Island, Antarctica is named after Belimel.-Notes:...
, Chelyustnitsa
Chelyustnitsa
Chelyustnitsa is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
, Gorna Kovachitsa
Gorna Kovachitsa
Gorna Kovachitsa is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
, Gorna Luka
Gorna Luka
Gorna Luka is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
, Martinovo
Martinovo
Martinovo is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
, Mitrovtsi
Mitrovtsi
Mitrovtsi is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.MitrovtsiMitrovtsi is a village in North-Western Bulgaria. It is located in Chiprovtsi County, Montana Region...
, Prevala
Prevala
Prevala is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
, Ravna
Ravna, Montana Province
Ravna is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of the Chiprovtsi Municipality in the Montana Province....
and Zhelezna
Zhelezna
Zhelezna is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province....
. The town lies 155 km (96.3 mi) from the Bulgarian capital Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, 35 km (21.7 mi) from the provincial capital Montana, 44 km (27.3 mi) from Berkovitsa
Berkovitsa
Berkovitsa is a town and ski resort in northwestern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Berkovitsa Municipality, Montana Province and is close to the town of Varshets...
and 18 km (11.2 mi) from the national border of Bulgaria and Serbia; the nearest Serbian municipality is Surdulica
Surdulica
Surdulica is a town and municipality situated in the southeast of Serbia . In 2011, the population of the town is 10,915, while population of the municipality is 20,265.-Geography:...
.
Chiprovtsi municipality falls in the humid continental climate
Humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
climate zone, with a slight mountain influence
Alpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
. The average year-round temperature is 9.7 °C (49.5 °F); the average monthly temperature is −1 or 0 °C (30.2 or 32 °F) in January and 20 °C (68 °F) in July. The average yearly precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
is 776–816 millimetres. The spring is short and rainy, while the summer is generally hot and dry. In the winter, the area is subject to a strong northeastern wind and a temperature inversion
Inversion (meteorology)
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to a temperature inversion, i.e...
in the valleys.
Of the 38 rivers and rivulets that flow across the municipality, the most important are the Ogosta and the Prevalska. There is a water reservoir
Water reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
near Martinovo and a hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
plant at Zhelezna. There are no mineral spring
Mineral spring
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value...
s in the municipality. Chiprovtsi municipality is home to 1,250 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of plants, including a large number of herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s and deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
trees; some of the trees are 150–300 years old.
Of the municipality's area of 286.9 km² (110.8 sq mi), 50.51% or 144.9 km² (55.9 sq mi) are covered by forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s, 42.73% or 122.6 km² (47.3 sq mi) constitute arable land
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
and 5.71% or 16.4 km² (6.3 sq mi) are urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
s. The remaining 1.05% are composed of water areas, mines and infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
.
Demographics
On 31 July 2005, Chiprovtsi municipality's population was 4,810; 2,375 people were from the town itself—1,167 men and 1,208 women. By June 2008, the town's population had declined to 2,122. According to 2005 data, the largest village in the municipality is Prevala with a population of 585; the smallest is Ravna with 68. The ethnicEthnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
composition of the municipality is homogeneous; 4,722 people or 99.21% identify themselves as Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
and 38 people or 0.79% as Roma
Roma in Bulgaria
The Roma in Bulgaria are the country's second largest minority and third largest ethnic group . According to the 2001 census, there were 370,908 Roma in Bulgaria, equivalent to 4.7% of the country's total population, making Bulgaria the European country with the highest percentage of Roma.Experts'...
. Of the Roma, three quarters live in the Barzan neighbourhood of Martinovo and arrived from around Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad is a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province.-History:Asenovgrad was founded by the Thracians as Stenímachos around 300–400 BC. In 72 BC the city was captured by the troops of the Roman Empire as part of the Roman expansion towards the Black Sea. After a long period...
, the rest are residents of Chelyustnitsa and descend from Berkovitsa.
Since 1956, the municipality has experienced population ageing
Population ageing
Population ageing or population aging occurs when the median age of a country or region rises. This happens because of rising life expectancy or declining birth rates. Excepting 18 countries termed 'demographic outliers' by the UN) this process is taking place in every country and region across...
and rural depopulation, as many people have migrated to larger cities such as Montana, Vidin
Vidin
Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...
, Vratsa
Vratsa
Vratsa is a city in northwestern Bulgaria, at the foothills of the Balkan Mountains. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Vratsa Province. As of February 2011, the town has a population of 60,482 inhabitants....
and Sofia. The ratio of urban to rural population is 49.37% to 50.63%, indicating an almost equal distribution between the town of Chiprovtsi and the surrounding villages. As of 2005, the unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
in the municipality is 23.5%, much higher than the Bulgarian average of 7.75% according to 2007 data.
| Place | 1934 | 1946 | 1956 | 1965 | 1976 | 1985 | 1992 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belimel Belimel Belimel is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.Belimel Bay in Trinity Island, Antarctica is named after Belimel.-Notes:... |
1470 | 1432 | 1560 | 1347 | 867 | 657 | 532 | 406 | 380 | 372 | 339 | 206 |
| Chelyustnitsa Chelyustnitsa Chelyustnitsa is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
626 | 587 | 483 | 393 | 279 | 200 | 151 | 132 | 129 | 115 | 105 | 98 |
| Chiprovtsi | 2,831 | 3,135 | 3,517 | 4,134 | 3,399 | 3,236 | 3,089 | 2,666 | 2,585 | 2,391 | 2,487 | 2,375 |
| Gorna Kovachitsa Gorna Kovachitsa Gorna Kovachitsa is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
791 | 736 | 607 | 545 | 461 | 322 | 257 | 181 | 186 | 190 | 170 | 160 |
| Gorna Luka Gorna Luka Gorna Luka is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
1,022 | 992 | 903 | 776 | 579 | 464 | 388 | 306 | 293 | 280 | 274 | 251 |
| Martinovo Martinovo Martinovo is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
854 | 890 | 882 | 1,330 | 1,058 | 710 | 613 | 458 | 440 | 417 | 433 | 410 |
| Mitrovtsi Mitrovtsi Mitrovtsi is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.MitrovtsiMitrovtsi is a village in North-Western Bulgaria. It is located in Chiprovtsi County, Montana Region... |
971 | 965 | 800 | 580 | 989 | 312 | 241 | 191 | 178 | 162 | 160 | 143 |
| Prevala Prevala Prevala is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
1,599 | 1,719 | 1,529 | 1,391 | 1,201 | 1,042 | 911 | 759 | 713 | 594 | 635 | 565 |
| Ravna Ravna, Montana Province Ravna is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of the Chiprovtsi Municipality in the Montana Province.... |
348 | 360 | 276 | 211 | 153 | 112 | 106 | 83 | 83 | 75 | 75 | 68 |
| Zhelezna Zhelezna Zhelezna is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Chiprovtsi Municipality, Montana Province.... |
912 | 973 | 925 | 1,056 | 762 | 623 | 560 | 481 | 461 | 434 | 434 | 414 |
| Total | 11,424 | 11,779 | 11,482 | 11,762 | 9,148 | 7,678 | 6,817 | 5,663 | 5,448 | 5,030 | 5,116 | 4,810 |
Antiquity and Middle Ages
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
and later the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, when the local metal deposits were exploited. According to historian V. Velkov, the valley of the Ogosta was inhabited by Thracians since the early 1st millennium BC. According to ancient accounts, the area was populated by the Thracian tribe of the Triballi
Triballi
The Triballi were an ancient tribe whose dominion was around the plains of southern modern Serbia and west Bulgaria, at the Angrus and Brongus and the Iskur River, roughly centered where Serbia and Bulgaria are joined....
or a related group of Thracians. The Romans conquered what is today the Bulgarian northwest after 29 BC and consolidated their authority in the region under Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
(98–117). There are remains of Roman fortifications around Chiprovtsi, such as the Latin Fortress ruins in the Kula area, where coins dating to the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) and Commodus
Commodus
Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...
(180–192) have been unearthed, and the Big Ruins south of the town. The gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
mines brought sizable revenue to the Romans, who took good care to protect these from barbarian
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
attacks.
With the arrival of the Seven Slavic tribes
Seven Slavic tribes
The Seven Slavic tribes were a union of Slavic tribes of Moesia that was established around the middle of the 7th century and took part in the formation of the First Bulgarian Empire together with the Bulgars in 680-681....
and the Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
in the 6th–7th century and the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
in 680 in the former lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
), the entire region was soon incorporated into the Bulgarian realm. After a period of renewed Byzantine rule in 1018–1185, it was part of the Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
until its conquest by the Ottomans in the late 14th or early 15th century.
The presence of the German ore miners, known locally as sasi (саси, Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
), cannot be accurately dated. Some researchers estimate their arrival in Chiprovtsi to be in the mid-14th century, the time of the last Bulgarian emperors, while others claim they reached the town during the early Ottoman rule
History of early Ottoman Bulgaria
The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly 500 years, from the conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire by the Ottoman Empire in 1396, to its liberation in 1878. Bulgarian territories were administrated as the Rumelia Eyalet. The Ottoman rule was a period marked by oppression and misgovernment and...
of Bulgaria. Their exact number and place of origin are also vague, although the German miners were widely recruited as specialists in medieval Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and Serbia. In Chiprovtsi, they are thought to have arrived as a single group of about 50–60 people with their families. They were probably recruited through special contracts and likely received some privilege
Privilege
A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth...
s compared to the native Bulgarian population. In Chiprovtsi's mines, they served as technicians and overseers, contributing to the technological progress of mining in the region. They were, however, gradually assimilated by the local Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
by the mid-15th century, as indicated by German name
German name
German names consist of one or several Vornamen and a Nachname . The Vorname is usually gender-specific.-Forenames:...
s with Slavic suffixes in the population registers. The Germans left behind the name of one of the neighbourhoods, still known as the "Saxon" neighbourhood in the 17th century, and Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion in the town.
In the second half of the 14th century, a certain number of Bosnian Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
and Ragusan
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
merchants arrived in Chiprovtsi and its surroundings, accompanied by some Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
clerics from Catholic Franciscan province of Silver Bosnia
Bosnian Franciscans
Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena is a province of the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina...
. According to the research of Croatian historian Vitomir Belaj, the Catholic Franciscans had arrived from medieval Bosnia in western Bulgaria at the time of Bosnian vicar Bartul Alvernski ("Bartholomew of Alverno"), who himself originated from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in 1366. Among the newcoming settlers there were some noblemen as well. According to Belaj, these included members of the Parchevich family, the ancestral house of the Peyachevich family
House of Pejačević
The Pejačević or Pejácsevich family is an old Croatian noble family, remarkable during the period in history marked by the Ottoman war in the Kingdom of Croatia in the Union with Hungary and Austro-Hungarian Empire respectively. Notable members of the family were politicians, clerics, artists,...
.
Early Ottoman rule
As the Ottomans subjugated the Balkans in the 14th–15th centuries, they valued the Chiprovtsi mines for their military and civil needs and sought to renew the ore extraction that had been interrupted by warfare. Renewed exploitation of the local deposits is thought to have commenced by the late 15th century; a note of 1479 mentions that the mines "in BosniaBosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
, Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
and other places" had been rented.
The town of Chiprovtsi and several of the surrounding villages were administratively organized as a has, or a private possession of the sultan's royal family
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
and later of the sultan's mother. The special status of the area meant that the local Christians
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
would not be subject to the usual discriminatory laws, but would have to pay an annual tribute of silver to the sultan. Later on, the estate was organized as a waqf
Waqf
A waqf also spelled wakf formally known as wakf-alal-aulad is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law, typically denoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious or charitable purposes. The donated assets are held by a charitable trust...
, a land devoted for Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
religious or charitable purposes. Chiprovtsi and the region were inhabited exclusively by Christians and they had the privilege to perform their rituals in public without discrimination. The only Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
person in the town was the sultan's representative and no Turks were allowed to settle there, as the local Bulgarians enjoyed self-government to a certain degree and were administered by an elected council of eminent Bulgarian residents (knezove). A fragment of the area's pre-Ottoman Bulgarian administrative division
Administrative division
An administrative division, subnational entity, or country subdivision is a portion of a country or other political division, established for the purpose of government. Administrative divisions are each granted a certain degree of autonomy, and are required to manage themselves through their own...
may have also been preserved, as it is referred to under the Slavic name voivodeship
Voivodeship
Voivodship is a term denoting the position of, or more commonly the area administered by, a voivod. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Serbia....
in some documents.
| Year | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1577 | 2,000 | anonymous |
| 1585 | 300 families (including Orthodox) |
Ottoman account |
| 1624 | 2,600 | Pietro Masarechi |
| 1640 | 4,430 | Bakshev |
| 1647 | 4,000 | Bakshev |
| 1649 | 3,800 | Bakshev |
| 1653 | 3,660 | Bakshev |
| 1658 | 3,640 | Bakshev |
| 1666 | 550 families (including Orthodox) |
Ottoman account |
| 1667 | 4,140 | Bakshev |
| 1670 | 4,140 | Bakshev |
| 1679 | 4,270 | Knezhevich |
By the 1520s, Chiprovtsi was still a minor centre of mining activity compared to other places in the empire. In that period, it brought a revenue of 47,553 akçe
Akçe
thumb|250px|AkçeA silver coin, the akçe was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word "akçe" is derived from the Greek "" , the name of a Byzantine silver or billon coin, current in the region that eventually became the Ottoman Empire. The akçe is hence often called asper in English...
, as compared to Kratovo
Kratovo, Republic of Macedonia
Kratovo is a small picturesque town in Macedonia, one of the regions' living museums. It is the seat of Kratovo Municipality. It lies on the western slopes of Mount Osogovo at an altitude of above sea level. Having a mild and pleasant climate, it is located in the crater of an extinct volcano...
's 100,000 and Srebrenica
Srebrenica
Srebrenica is a town and municipality in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War, the town was the site of the July 1995 massacre,...
's 477,000. The Catholic miners are known to have arrived by that time, as the Catholic Church of Saint Mary had been built around 1487, but it was not until the years after the 1520s that Chiprovtsi attracted more colonists and turned into one of the Ottoman Empire's leading mining centres. By 1528, Chiprovtsi had a mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
and was manufacturing silver coins. In 1585, the miners were forced to work night and day and had to pay increased taxes, leading to protests and the danger that they may migrate. By the time, Chiprovtsi was already providing a revenue of 1,400,000 akçe, making it one of the empire's prime mining and metalworking regions.
In the mid-16th century, Chiprovtsi began to attract the attention of Catholic officials from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. In 1565, the archbishop of Antivari
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bar
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bar is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Montenegro. It is centred in the city of Bar . It was erected as a diocese in the 9th century and elevated to an archdiocese in 1089...
(today Bar
Bar, Montenegro
Bar is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has a population of 17,727...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
) Ambrosius arrived in the town as an apostolic visitor
Apostolic visitor
In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration...
. In 1592–1595, the Bosnian Croat cleric Peter Solinat and a group of Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
s established a Catholic mission in the town. In 1601, Solinat was appointed bishop of Sofia with his seat in Chiprovtsi by Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 30 January 1592 to 3 March 1605.-Cardinal:...
. He chose to reside in Chiprovtsi because Sofia's Catholic population was limited to a handful of Ragusan
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
merchant families.
Cultural heyday
Chiprovtsi's development reached its apogee in the 17th century, when it became a bustling cultural, religious and merchant centre of that part of the BalkansBalkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Named the "flower of Bulgaria" in that period, some have deemed the town's prosperity the Balkans' only participation in the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, along with that of Dalmatia. Many members of the local élite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
were educated in Rome, particularly at the Collegio Clementino
Collegio Clementino
The Collegio Clementino is a palace in Rome, central Italy, sited between the Strada del'Orso and the banks of the Tiber. It was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1595, to host Slavonian refugees. Giacomo della Porta was commissioned to erect a suitable building to house them, which would be one of...
and the Sapienza University. Gradually, the foreign Franciscans were replaced by locals and in the 1620s the Bulgarian Catholics formed a separate autonomous entity directly subordinate to the Pope, the Bulgarian Custody. Solinat was succeeded by a Bulgarian bishop, Iliya Marinov of Chiprovtsi, who was in turn followed by another local, Petar Bogdan Bakshev, who travelled to Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Rome and Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
looking for funds and support for the community. In the 1640s, the Bulgarian Custody gave way to the Diocese of Marcianopolis
Marcianopolis
Marcianopolis or Marcianople was an ancient Roman city in Thracia. It was located at the site of modern day Devnya, Bulgaria.-History:...
presided by Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich or Petar Mihaylov Parchev was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising....
and the Diocese of Nicopoli
Roman Catholic Diocese of Nicopoli
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nicopoli is a Roman Catholic diocese of the Latin Rite, which includes the whole Northern part of Bulgaria. The seat of the episcopal see is in Rousse, although the diocese is named after Nikopol...
headed by Filip Stanislavov and represented in Chiprovtsi by Franchesko Soymirovich. The town and the surrounding areas were not entirely Catholic: a significant part of the population was Orthodox; the Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery
Chiprovtsi Monastery
Chiprovtsi Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery 5 kilometres northeast of the town of Chiprovtsi in Montana Province in northwestern Bulgaria...
still exists today.
The evolution of Chiprovtsi from a mining town to a trade hub owes much to the settlement of merchants from the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
(today Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) and the quality of the local metalworking, as well as the lack of permanent Ottoman presence and the privileges enjoyed by the population. By the mid-17th century, mining was in decline, as the silver deposits had been all but exhausted (in 1666 there remained only 16 iron smelteries), forcing the population to seek a more profitable occupation. Since 1659, the Ragusan merchants from Provadiya
Provadiya
Provadia is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Varna Province, located in a deep karst gorge along the Provadia River not far from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Provadiya Municipality. As of December 2009, the town has a population of...
altered their traditional route to Dubrovnik through Sofia in order to visit Chiprovtsi. The local residents produced and traded with leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
, carpets, fabrics, clothes, remarkable gold and silver jewellery, metal tools, cattle, etc. Initially, the Chiprovtsi merchants would only visit Vidin, Pirot
Pirot
Pirot is a town and municipality located in south-eastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 38,432, while the population of the municipality is 57,911...
, Sofia and Vratsa. Later, however, they appeared at the markets in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
, Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
, Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
and Pest, with a particularly strong presence in Wallachia and Transylvania, where they established permanent agencies and sizable companies in Târgovişte
Târgoviste
Târgoviște is a city in the Dâmbovița county of Romania. It is situated on the right bank of the Ialomiţa River. , it had an estimated population of 89,000. One village, Priseaca, is administered by the city.-Name:...
, Câmpulung
Câmpulung
Câmpulung , or Câmpulung Muscel, is a city in the Argeş County, Wallachia, Romania. It is situated among the outlying hills of the Transylvanian Alps, at the head of a long well-wooded glen traversed by the Râul Târgului, a tributary of the Argeş.Its pure air and fine scenery render Câmpulung a...
and Râmnic
Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania .-Geography and climate:Râmnicu Vâlcea is situated in the central-south area of Romania...
during the rule of Matei Basarab
Matei Basarab
Matei Basarab was a Wallachian Voivode between 1632 and 1654.-Reign:Much of Matei's reign was spent fighting off incursions from Moldavia, which he successfully accomplished in 1637, 1639, and 1653 - see Battle of Finta...
(1632–1654). The international trade broadened the outlook of the locals and introduced the ideas of the age and the European culture of the time to the region.
A Catholic monastery was built during the time of Peter Solinat and developed as an educational centre through its school; it was referred to as one of the most prestigious schools in the Bulgarian lands in that period. The school was partially foreign-funded and provided education in grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, arithmetic
Arithmetic
Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of combining numbers...
, logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
to 75–80 students. The teachers were often Bulgarian graduates of the Collegio Clementino
Collegio Clementino
The Collegio Clementino is a palace in Rome, central Italy, sited between the Strada del'Orso and the banks of the Tiber. It was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1595, to host Slavonian refugees. Giacomo della Porta was commissioned to erect a suitable building to house them, which would be one of...
in Rome and the languages of education were Latin, Bulgarian and "Illyrian", a Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
form written usually in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
but sometimes in Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
. The school also had a library, one of the first in Bulgaria. Since the 1630s, the eminent writers and translators from Chiprovtsi, most notably Petar Bogdan Bakshev and Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich or Petar Mihaylov Parchev was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising....
, formed the so-called "Chiprovtsi Literary School", issuing books about the history of Bulgaria, as well as on religious topics.
Chiprovtsi Uprising
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
and Hungarian rebel raids. By the 1630s, the idea of an organized anti-Ottoman revolt had reached the town of Chiprovtsi. In his 1650 account to the senate of the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich
Petar Parchevich or Petar Mihaylov Parchev was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising....
described the long preparations for an armed struggle and the support-seeking visits of his fellow townsmen to the kings of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. Since then, the inhabitants of Chiprovtsi waited for the suitable moment when they would be able to instigate an effective uprising and continued to co-operate with the leaders of the European realms.
On 12 September 1683, the Ottomans were routed by the forces of Europe at the Battle of Vienna
Battle of Vienna
The Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
. In early 1684, Austria, Poland and Venice concluded an anti-Ottoman pact; they were joined by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1686 to form the Holy League
Great Turkish War
The Great Turkish War refers to a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and contemporary European powers, then joined into a Holy League, during the second half of the 17th century.-1667–1683:...
. It was clear at that time that the decisive moment was near. The leaders of Chiprovtsi assessed that after the imminent capture of Belgrade by the League in 1688 their European allies would reach Sofia and end the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. Thus, they revolted in the spring of 1688. The reach of the uprising cannot be exactly determined, but scholars such as S. Damyanov believe it included Chiprovtsi and the neighbourhing Kopilovtsi, Klisura and Zhelezna and thousands of Bulgarians from the entire Bulgarian northwest. Although the leaders were mostly Catholics, the bulk of the insurgents were Orthodox. It is known that the rebellion was led by over 200 voivodes of separate detachments. The insurgents were aided by six regiments of regular Habsburg army and artillery under General Heißler and managed to briefly capture the town of Kutlovitsa (modern Montana), but were ultimately crushed by the Ottomans and their Hungarian ally Imre Thököly
Imre Thököly
Count Imre Thököly de Késmárk was a Hungarian statesman, leader of an anti-Habsburg uprising, Prince of Transylvania, and vassal king of Upper Hungary.- Early life :Imre Thököly was born at Késmárk, Royal Hungary Count Imre Thököly de Késmárk (Thököly/Tököly/Tökölli Imre in Hungarian, Mirko...
. On 18–19 October, the Ottomans stormed Chiprovtsi and retook it from the rebels, capturing over 2,000 people. About 3,000 natives of the area, guarded by the remaining insurrectionary units, managed to flee beyond the Danube. Most of those settled in the Habsburg-ruled realms, founding a major Bulgarian colony in the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
known as the "Banat Bulgarians
Banat Bulgarians
The Banat Bulgarians are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which settled in the 18th century in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary...
", as well as colonies in Deva
Deva, Romania
Deva is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left bank of the Mureș River. It is the capital of Hunedoara County.-Name:...
and Alvinc (Vinţu de Jos
Vintu de Jos
Vinţu de Jos, also known as Vinţ is a commune located in the centre of Alba County, Romania. It is composed of eighteen villages: Câmpu Goblii , Ciocaşu , Crişeni , Dealu Ferului , Gura Cuţului , Haţegana , Inuri , Laz , Mătăcina , Mereteu...
) in Transylvania and Szentendre
Szentendre
Szentendre is a riverside town in Pest county, Hungary, near the capital city Budapest. It is known for its museums , galleries, and artists. Due to its picturesque appearance and easy rail and river access, it has become a popular destination for tourists staying in Budapest...
in modern Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. The town itself was plundered, burned down and deserted and its links to the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
were largely severed.
Repopulation and modern times
For several decades after the uprising, Chiprovtsi and the region remained desolate. In 1699, the Ottomans attempted to settle 1,238 anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebels in those lands and provided them with 5-year tax exemptionTax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
s, but this proved unsuccessful as in 1717 the same Hungarians were moved to the Rousse
Rousse
Ruse is the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is situated in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, from the capital Sofia and from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast...
barracks and sent to fight at Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
.
Ultimately, the region was repopulated by Orthodox Bulgarians, beginning in the 1720s. In 1737–1738, the sultan amnestied
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
the rebels and permitted the return of the insurgents' property in 1741, though none of the former residents is known to have returned. In the 1720s–1730s, Chiprovtsi had only 12 inhabited houses; by the 1750s, those had reached 150. The Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery had been reestablished in 1703 by a certain Zhivko who took the ecclesiastical name of Zoticus. As the interrupted mining was apparently not continued after the uprising and the international trade links had been severed, the locals switched to cattle breeding, agriculture, fur trade and later carpet weaving as their main occupation.
The western traveller Ami Boué
Ami Boué
Ami Boué , Austrian geologist, was born at Hamburg, and received his early education there and in Geneva and Paris....
, who visited the town in 1836–1838, reported that "mainly young girls, under shelters or in corridors, engage in carpet
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
. They earn only five franc
Franc
The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...
s a month and the payment was even lower before". By 1868, the annual production of carpets in Chiprovtsi had surpassed 14,000 square metres. Following the Russo-Turkish War in 1877–1878, Chiprovtsi, along with all of northern Bulgaria
Northern Bulgaria
Northern Bulgaria is the northern half of the territory of Bulgaria, located to the north of the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains which conventionally separates the country into a northern and a southern part...
and the region around Sofia, became part of the newly-liberated Principality of Bulgaria
Principality of Bulgaria
The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...
, the predecessor of modern Bulgaria. In 1896, almost 1,400 women from Chiprovtsi and the region were engaged in carpet weaving. In 1920, the locals founded the Manual Labour carpet-weaving cooperative society, the first of its kind in the country.
In the 1950s, ore output was renewed in the region, briefly revitalizing Chiprovtsi through the influx of young and highly-educated people. On 12 September 1968, Chiprovtsi was officially proclaimed a town
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
by the National Assembly of Bulgaria
National Assembly of Bulgaria
The National Assembly of Bulgaria is the unicameral parliament and body of the legislative of the Republic of Bulgaria.The National Assembly of Bulgaria was established in 1879 with the Constitution of Bulgaria.-Ordinary National Assembly:...
. In Socialist times, the town had a factory that produced AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
magazines and employed about 400 people. After the democratic changes in 1989
History of Bulgaria since 1989
The reforms towards liberalization, both social, political and economic in the Eastern Block started with Gorbachev's reform program in the Soviet Union which was felt in Bulgaria in the late 1980s...
, mining was discontinued again due to a lack of funds, the factory was closed and the carpet industry has been in decline as it had lost its firm foreign markets. As a result, the town and the municipality have been experiencing a demographic crisis.
Governance, education and economy
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
consists of a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
(kmet), a deputy mayor and a secretary. Since 2007, the municipality has been governed by Zaharin Ivanov Zamfirov of Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" who won the municipal elections with 1,615 votes or 62.67% against Antoaneta Todorova Kostova of the Bulgarian Socialist Party
Bulgarian Socialist Party
The Bulgarian Socialist Party is social-democratic political party in Bulgaria and successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. The BSP is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International, and is currently led by Sergei Stanishev....
who amassed 962 votes or 37.33%. Two villages in the municipality are eligible to elect their own mayor, Prevala and Zhelezna.
The municipal administration is divided into two branches, the common and specialized administration. The common administration is further divided into the "Information Services" and "Financial-economical Activities and Handling of Property" departments; the specialized administration includes the "Planning and Distribution of the Budget" and "Territorial and Village Planning and Building" departments. The municipality has no separate court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
or prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
's office and is instead serviced by the Montana provincial court and office. The local police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
is subordinate to the one in Montana. There is a Municipal Land Commission, part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Bulgaria)
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Bulgaria is the ministry charged with regulating agriculture and forestry in the country. It was founded as the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property on 24 July 1911, when it was separated from the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture.The Minister...
, and a Municipal Social Service. The Municipal Land Commission takes care of land and forest distribution and the Municipal Social Service oversees financial aid
Aid agency
An aid agency is an organisation dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government , between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizations...
and supports the disabled
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
.
The town has a primary school (grades 1–4) and a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
(grades 4–12); both claim to be successors of the school founded in 1624. The two schools service the entire municipality, as the six schools in the larger villages have been closed. In 1977, the high school was visited by about 600 students; the number slightly declined to 400 in 1989. In 2008, it was only visited by 142 children. Chiprovtsi's kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
is the only one remaining in the municipality of formerly 15.
The carpet
Chiprovtsi carpet
The Chipovtsi carpet is a type of handmade carpet with two absolutely identical sides, part of Bulgarian national heritage, traditions, arts and crafts. Its name is derived from the town of Chiprovtsi where their production started in 17th century.Its basic colours are yellow, brown, red, blue and...
(kilim
Kilim
Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs produced from the Balkans to Pakistan. Kilims can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. Recently-made kilims are popular floor-coverings in Western households.-Etymology:...
) industry remains dominant in the town. Carpets have been crafted according to traditional designs, but in recent years it is up to the customers to decide the pattern of the carpet they have ordered. The production of a single 3 by carpet takes about 50 days; primarily women engage in carpet weaving. Work is entirely manual and all used materials are natural; the primary material is wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
, coloured using plant or mineral dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
s. The local carpets have been prized at exhibitions in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Liège and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. The municipality has also invested in the development of tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and many private houses have been turned into small family hotels or guesthouses. In 2004, 65 people were engaged in the tourism industry; in the same year, the municipality was visited by 2,350 tourists, of whom were 254 foreigners. In terms of economic indicators, the municipality ranks around the high average: it is 113th of 264 municipalities in Bulgaria by GDP per capita and 67th by Human Development Index
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
.
In September 2008, it was reported that one of the few fluorite
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It is an isometric mineral with a cubic habit, though octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon...
deposits in Europe located near Chiprovtsi would be developed by a Bulgarian company that had leased the mine for 20 years. The company has invested BGN
Bulgarian lev
The lev is the currency of Bulgaria. It is divided in 100 stotinki . In archaic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion".It is speculated that Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union will adopt the Euro in 2015 .- First lev, 1881–1952 :...
14.5 million and aims to extract 150,000 tonnes of raw material and produce 50,000 tonnes of pure fluorite a year. As of 2008, the company employs 73 miners, all former workers in the closed local mines, and expects their number to reach 150.
Culture and religion
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
group of the Torlaks and speak a transitional Bulgarian dialect
Transitional Bulgarian dialects
The Transitional Bulgarian dialects are a group of Bulgarian dialects, which are located west of the yat boundary and are part of the Western Bulgarian dialects. On Bulgarian territory, the Transitional dialects occupy a narrow strip of land along the Bulgarian border with Serbia, including the...
, the Belogradchik dialect
Belogradchik dialect
The Belogradchik dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the Transitional dialects, which is spoken on the westernmost northern slopes of the Balkan mountains in northwestern Bulgaria...
. Most of the population are adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
. The municipality has 30 registered cultural monuments and 12 consecrated stone crosses, of which eight in Chiprovtsi. Such crosses are typical for the Bulgarian northwest and each is dedicated to a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
: they serve both demarcating and religious purposes. Most of the crosses are not dated, with the notable exceptions of Saint Demetrius
Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki
Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki was a Christian martyr, who lived in the early 4th century.During the Middle Ages, he came to be revered as one of the most important Orthodox military saints, often paired with Saint George...
—1755, Saints Peter and Paul
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, or the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, is a liturgical feast in honour of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June...
—1781 and Holy Mother of God
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
—1874.
A notable cultural trait of Chiprovtsi shared with much of the region is the veneration of a family patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
, named svetets ("saint") and akin to Serbian slava
Slava
The Slava , also called Krsna Slava and Krsno ime , is the Serbian Orthodox tradition of the ritual celebration and veneration of a family's own patron saint. The family celebrates the Slava annually on the patron saint's feast day...
. The practice exists since time immemorial
Time immemorial
Time immemorial is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition, indefinitely ancient, "ancient beyond memory or record"...
and the family saint is thought to have been chosen by the taking of a random candle
Candle
A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...
by an unaware person. The svetets is associated to the family house: when a daughter-in-law comes to live there, she accepts the family saint of the home, and when a family member or a foreign settler moves out or builds a new house, they adopt a new svetets.
Chiprovtsi has a museum of history that occupies two old-style buildings and features four exhibitions. These present the domestic life from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the 17th-century heyday until today, as well as works of the Chiprovtsi goldsmithing and carpet industry. The town has an Eastern Orthodox church
Eastern Orthodox church architecture
An Orthodox church as a church building of Eastern Orthodoxy has a distinct, recognizable style among church architectures.-History:While sharing many traditions, East and West in Christianity began to diverge from each other from an early date...
dedicated to the Ascension of Jesus; the remains of the old Roman Catholic church of Saint Marty have also been preserved. The Chiprovtsi Monastery is situated outside the town; there are ruins of several other Orthodox churches and another monastery.
The town has a community cultural centre (chitalishte
Chitalishte
A chitalishte is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building which fulfils several functions at once, such as a community centre, library and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people of all ages can enroll in foreign language, dance, music and other courses....
) with branches in eight of the villages in the municipality. The chitalishte has a youth dancing group, a folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
group, a theatrical
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
group, a folk ritual and customs reproduction group and other similar groups. The nine libraries of the Chiprovtsi chitalishte and its branches house 65,975 volumes of books.
External links
- http://www.chiprovtsi.bg/ Official site of Chiprovtsi Municipality
- Official website of Chiprovtsi municipality
- Nikola Gruev's photo gallery of Chiprovtsi
- Adventures in Chiprovtsi, an article by Expat in Bulgaria
- The Torlaks, guesthouse, pub (mehanaMeyhaneA meyhane is a traditional restaurant or bar in historical Iran, Turkey and Balkans region. The word of meyhane comes from persian and the meaning is the place where people drink wine. "Meyhane" is composed of two Persian words: mey and hane .- History :History of meyhane starts from Byzantine...
) and carpet producer in Chiprovtsi