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Velingrad (Bulgarian: Велинград [ˈvɛlinɡrat]) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, located at the western end of Chepino Valley, part of the Rhodope Mountains. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality and one of the most popular Bulgarian balneological resorts. The town has a population of 22,602 inhabitants according to the 2011 census of Velingrad.[2][3]

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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Bulgarian. (December 2008) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Bulgarian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 251 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Bulgarian Wikipedia article at [[:bg:Велинград]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|bg|Велинград}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Velingrad Велинград
Velingrad in mid-June 2008
Coat of arms
Velingrad Location of Velingrad
Coordinates: 42°1′N 24°0′E
Country	Bulgaria
Province (Oblast)	Pazardzhik
Government
• Mayor	Kostadin Koev
Area
• Total	124.955 km2 (48.245 sq mi)
Elevation	777 m (2,549 ft)
Population  (December 2021)[1]
• Total	20,286
• Density	160/km2 (420/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal Code	4600
Area code	359
Website	Official website

History

The region was inhabited by the Slavs. According to Bulgarian academics, the Dragovichi tribe lived there. The Dragovichi accepted many Thracian customs, but gave them typical Slavic characteristics. Soon after the Bulgar invasion of the Balkans, the whole region was annexed to the First Bulgarian Empire by Malamir.

Velingrad was founded in 1948 after the unification between the villages–Chepino, Ladzhene and Kamenitsa, renamed after Vela Peeva, a Bulgarian communist revolutionary who gave up her life during World War II.[4][5][6] Chepino and Kamenitsa are older settlements, but Ladzhene was founded after 1878 by Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, because their region remained under Ottoman rule after the Treaty of Berlin.

Geography

Velingrad is situated at 750–850 m above sea level. Summers are warm and winters are cold. The average annual temperature is 10 °C, while the average July temperature is 19 °C. The annual duration of sunshine is about 2,000 hours. The relative air humidity ranges from 65 to 75%. Surrounded by age-old pine tree woods, the town favors abundant sunshine.

Demographics

Velingrad has an Aromanian community, being one of the few places in Bulgaria where Aromanians live.[7][8] An Aromanian cultural organization exists in Velingrad.[9]

Waters

There are more than 90 mineral water springs with curative and preventive properties in and around the town. The mineral waters (from springs and wells) vary considerably in temperature, mineralization, radon, silicic acid and fluorine content, and are suitable for treatment of a wide range of diseases. 9000 litres of water per minute spring from the five thermal and mineral deposits in Ladzhene, Kamenitsa, Chepino, Rakitovo and Kostandovo.

Together with the numerous mineral waters, Velingrad boasts another natural phenomenon as well — the Kleptuza, the biggest Karst spring in Bulgaria, with an average discharge of 1200 litres of ice-cold water per second.

Culture, education and architecture

There are eight schools (five of them high schools),[10] three reference libraries (chitalishtes), about 100 hotels (some of which five-star), a stadium and a city orchestra.

The Villa Raîna is a Néo-Renaissance villa in the city's area of Ldžene (Bulgarian: Лъдженe) and was designed in 1928 by a renowned pre-WWII Serbian architect Milutin Borisavljević (1889-1970). Initially, "Raina" was conceived as the summer house of the Belgrade based industrialist, Stojadin "Stole" Stevović (1888-1945), for the needs of the families Stevović and Simić. The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Velingrad, locally called the "Acropolis". The design mainly reflected the values of French Renaissance architecture but with discreet decorative features in the then fashionable Art Deco style. The house was nationalized in 1946, and transformed into a sanatorium for the treatment of infectious diseases. In 1992 the Villa Raina was restituted to Stevović's heirs (families Krsmanović-Simić and Gillès de Pélichy). The summer house is today protected by law as a cultural and historical monument of regional importance.[11]

Balneology and tourism

The natural environment, climatic features, and mineral springs favourable for the treatment of a number of diseases make Velingrad a tourist destination for Bulgarian as well as foreign citizens.^{[citation needed]} On the territory of the city there are 3 sanatoriums, over 60 hotels, 140 restaurants and entertainment venues. Six holiday complexes have been modernised, offering all types of balneological services. Public mineral baths have been improved and 22 outdoor and indoor mineral pools have been built.

In Velingrad there is a possibility for treatment of lung and joint diseases, neurological and gynecological problems (including infertility), kidney, liver, gastrointestinal and many other problems. Spa treatment is carried out by drinking mineral water, inhalations, baths and rinses.

Honour

Velingrad Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after the city.

Notable people

• Atanas Semerdzhiev (1924 - 2015) - partisan, general and politician, Vice President of Bulgaria (1990 - 1992)
• Vela Peeva (1922 - 1944) - partisan, after whom the city is named
• Nicolai Ghiaurov (1929 - 2004) - opera singer, performer, intellectual
• Sasho Kasiyanov (1951 - 2012) - musician, pedagogue, longtime radio host in Sliven
• Vasil Ivanov Goranov (b. 1972) - Bulgarian contemporary artist
• Margarita Popova (b. 1956) - Minister of Justice (2009 - 2011) and Vice President of Bulgaria (2012 - 2017)
• Lydia Shouleva (b. 1956) - politician, Deputy Prime Minister (2001 - 2005), Minister of Labor and Social Policy (2001 - 2003), Minister of Economy (2003 - 2005)
• Petar Georgiev Gugalov (b. 1929) - opera singer
• Vasil Bozhkov (b. 1956) is a businessman
• Nikola Hadji Daskalov (1894 -?) - Macedonian-Edirne volunteer, the detachment of Georgi Myakhov
• Vlado Chernozemski (1897 - 1934) - a revolutionary
• Georgi Atanasov Puhalev (1935 - 2008) - Bulgarian scientist, landscape architect and economist, professor.
• Kiril Grigorov Ilinchev (1921 - 1994) - film and theater director, screenwriter and actor
• Petar Punchev (b. 1956) - journalist, co-founder of Radio FM +
• Neri Terzieva (b. 1952) is a journalist
• Jako Avramov Molkhov (1915 - 2001) - critic, screenwriter, writer
• Vasil Pendev (b. 1947) is a cartoonist
• Iliya Semerdzhiev - actor and host
• Kostadin Filipov is a TV journalist
• Dimitar Mechev (1928 - 2007) - conductor
• Tsvetan Golomeev (1962 - 2010) - swimmer
• Dimo Tonev (b. 1964) is a volleyball player
• Georgi Gadzhev (b. 1964) is a football player
• Nedko Milenov (b. 1978) is a football player

Notes

External links

• Virtual Velingrad

На других языках

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[de] Welingrad

Welingrad [.mw-parser-output .IPA a{text-decoration:none}ˈvɛliŋˌɡrat] (bulgarisch Велинград) ist eine bulgarische Stadt und Zentrum einer gleichnamigen Gemeinde in den Rhodopen.

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- [en] Velingrad

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[es] Velingrad

Velingrad (en búlgaro: Велинград) es una ciudad de Bulgaria en la provincia de Pazardzhik.

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[ru] Велинград

Ве́линград[1] (болг. Велинград) — город в Пазарджикской области Болгарии. Административный центр общины Велинград. Второй по величине город области, Население — 24 518 человек по настоящeму адресу (15.03.2016)[2].

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