Sidirokastro
Sidirokastro ( el, Σιδηρόκαστρο; Bulgarian and Macedonian: ''Valovišta''; tr, Demirhisar) is a town and a former municipality in the Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Sintiki, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is built near the fertile valley of the Struma River, river Strymonas, on the bank of the Krousovitis River. Sidirokastro is situated on the European route E79 and the main road from northern Greece (Thessaloniki) to Bulgaria. It has a number of tourist sights, such as the medieval stone castle, Byzantine ruins, and natural spas. General information Sidirokastro is located 25 km to the northwest of the town of Serres, between the Vrontous and Angistro mountains (to the north) and the river Struma (river), Strymonas (to the west). The 2011 census recorded 9,294 residents in the municipal unit of Sidirokastro, while there were 5,693 residents recorded in the community of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Serres (regional Unit)
Serres ( el, Περιφερειακή ενότητα Σερρών) is one of the regional units of Greece, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is part of the Region of Central Macedonia. Its capital is the city of Serres. The total population reaches just over 175,000. Geography The mountains are Orvelos to the north, Menoikio to the east, Pangaio to the southeast, Kerdylio to the southwest, Vertiskos to the west, parts of Krousi to the west and portions of the Kerkini lies to the northwest. The regional unit borders on Thessaloniki to the southwest, Kilkis to the west, North Macedonia with the Novo Selo Municipality to the northwest, the Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria to the north, Drama to the northeast and Kavala to the east. The Strymonian Gulf lies to the south along with the Strymonas delta. Lake Kerkini was a lake located in the southern portion which is now drained. 41% of the regional unit are arable and most of the lands are near the Strymonas river which f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sintiki
Sintiki ( el, Σιντική) is a municipality in the Serres regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Sidirokastro. The municipality has an area of 1,103.431 km2. Municipality The municipality was formed after the administrative reform in 2010 (Kallikratis plan) from the merger of the former municipalities of Kerkini, Petrisi and Sidirokastro and the rural municipalities of Angistro, Achladochori and Promachonas. The administrative seat of the municipality is Sidirokastro. The former municipalities and rural municipalities have since formed the six municipal districts. The community is further subdivided into 3 city districts and 23 local communities. Province The province of Sintiki ( el, Επαρχία Σιντικής) was one of the provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vrontous
Vrontous ( el, Βροντούς, bg, Шарлия - Sharliya) is a mountain range in the northeastern Serres and the westernmost Drama regional units in Greece. Its highest peak is the Ali Babas ( el, Αλή Μπαμπάς) at 1,849 m elevation. Other notable peaks are the Kour Lof (1,667 m, southwest of Ali Babas), Mavro vouno (1,653 m, northeast), Siderovouni (1,475 m, east) and Sarligia (1,404 m, southwest). It is a densely forested and sparsely populated mountain range. It stretches between the village Vamvakofyto in the southwest and Perithori in the northeast, over a length of about 35 km. The nearest mountains are the Slavyanka/Orvilos to the north and the Menoikio to the southeast. The nearest larger towns are Serres to the south and Sidirokastro to the west. Villages in the Vrontous mountains include Ano Vrontou, Kato Vrontou and Katafyto in the east, Achladochori in the north and Oreini in the south. The Greek National Road 63/ E79 (Serres - Sidirokastro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sanjak Of Serres
The Sanjak of Siroz or Serres (Ottoman Turkish: ''Sancak-i/Liva-i Siroz''; el, λιβάς/σαντζάκι Σερρών, bg, Серски Санджак) was a second-level Ottoman province (''sanjak'' or '' liva'') encompassing the region around the town of Serres (Turkish: ''Siroz'', now in Greece) in central Macedonia. Serres fell to the Ottoman Empire on 19 September 1383, and initially formed a fief of Evrenos Beg, who brought in Yörük settlers from Sarukhan. Although never rising to particular prominence within the Ottoman Empire, Serres became also the site of a mint from 1413/14 on. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Serres was an autonomous beylik under a succession of derebeys, within the Sanjak of Salonica. Siroz became a regular province by 1846, during the Tanzimat reforms, as a ''sanjak'' of the Salonica Eyalet (later Salonica Vilayet), encompassing the towns of Drama, Melnik, Timurhisar (Sidirokastro), Nevrekop (Gotse Delchev) and Lissa. Drama was creat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of its European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under the Ottoman Empire's control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the Balkan crisis of 1914 and thus served as a "prelude to the First World War". By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large eleme ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Melnik, Bulgaria
Melnik ( bg, Мелник , el, Μελένικο, ''Meleniko'') is a town in Blagoevgrad Province, Southwestern Bulgaria, in the Southwestern Pirin Mountains, about 440 m above sea level. The town is an architectural reserve and 96 of its buildings are cultural monuments. With a population of 385, it is the smallest town in Bulgaria, retaining its town status today for historical reasons. It is situated on the foothills of the Pirin mountain range and is overlooked by the Melnik Earth Pyramids. History According to archaeological evidence, the first to settle in the area were the Thracian tribe '' Medi'' to which the famous rebel Spartacus belonged. Centuries later, the presence of the Romans left the town one of its landmarks — the Ancient Roman bridge, which is still preserved. The Slavs who later came in these parts named the settlement ''Melnik'' after the sand formations surrounding it on all sides (the Bulgarian word мел ''mel'' means "white clay, chalk"). Melni ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Georgi Todorov (general)
Georgi Stoyanov Todorov ( bg, Георги Тодоров) (born on 10 August 1858 in Bolgrad (contemporary Ukraine); died on 16 November 1934 in Sofia) was a Bulgarian general who fought in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and First World War (1914–1918). Biography At the age of 19, he volunteered in the Bulgarian Corps (Opalchentsi) during the Russo-Turkish Liberation War. After the liberation, he graduated the first course of the Military School in Sofia (1879). In 1882, he entered the Sankt Peterburg Academy but could not graduate it because he returned for the Unification of Bulgaria in 1885 and took part in the war that followed immediately after it. During the war against Serbia, he commanded a unit which fought successfully against the enemy in the area of Vidin and Kula. After the war, he participated in the dethroning of Alexander I and was dismissed from the Army in 1886. Only a year later, he returned to o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kaza
A kaza (, , , plural: , , ; ota, قضا, script=Arab, (; meaning 'borough') * bg, околия (; meaning 'district'); also Кааза * el, υποδιοίκησις () or (, which means 'borough' or 'municipality'); also () * lad, kaza , group=note) is an administrative division historically used in the Ottoman Empire and is currently used in several of its successor states. The term is from Ottoman Turkish and means 'jurisdiction'; it is often translated 'district', 'sub-district' (though this also applies to a ), or 'juridical district'. Ottoman Empire In the Ottoman Empire, a kaza was originally a "geographical area subject to the legal and administrative jurisdiction of a '' kadı''. With the first Tanzimat reforms of 1839, the administrative duties of the ''kadı'' were transferred to a governor ''(kaymakam)'', with the ''kadıs'' acting as judges of Islamic law. In the Tanzimat era, the kaza became an administrative district with the 1864 Provincial Reform Law, whi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953. The Exarchate (a de facto autocephaly) was unilaterally (without the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch) promulgated on , in the Bulgarian church in Constantinople in pursuance of the firman of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire. The foundation of the Exarchate was the direct result of the struggle of the Bulgarian Orthodox against the domination of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1872, the Patriarchate accused the Exarchate that it introduced ''ethno-national'' characteristics in the religious organization of the Orthodox Church, and the secession from the Patriarchate was officially condemned by the Council in Constantinople in September 1872 a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roma People
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with significant concentrations in the Americas. In the English language, the Romani people are widely known by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which is considered pejorative by many Romani people due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity as well as its historical use as a racial slur. For versions (some of which are cognates) of the word in many other languages (e.g., , , it, zingaro, , and ) this perception is either very small or non-existent. At the first World Romani Congress in 1971, its attendees unanimously voted to reject the use of all exonyms for the Romani people, including ''Gypsy'', due to their aforementioned negative and stereotypical connotations. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Roma originated in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vlachs
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern Romance-speaking subgroups of Central and Eastern Europe. As a contemporary term, in the English language, the Vlachs are the Balkan Romance-speaking peoples who live south of the Danube in what are now southern Albania, Bulgaria, northern Greece, North Macedonia, and eastern Serbia as native ethnic groups, such as the Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and the Timok Romanians. The term also became a synonym in the Balkans for the social category of shepherds, and was also used for non-Romance-speaking peoples, in recent times in the western Balkans derogatively. The term is also used to refer to the ethnographic group of Moravian Vlachs who speak a Slavic language but originate from Romanians. "Vlachs" were initially identified and des ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |