Arda ( bg, Арда) is a village in

Smolyan Municipality Smolyan ( bg, Смолян) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town and ski resort in the south of Bulgaria near the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the homonymous Smolyan Province. The town is built ...

, located in the

Smolyan Province Smolyan Province ( bg, Област Смолян, ''Oblast Smolyan''; former name Smolyan okrug) is a province in Southern-central Bulgaria, located in the Rhodope Mountains, neighbouring Greece to the south. It is named after its administrative ...

of southern Bulgaria. It is located 173.424 km from Sofia and the village covers an area of 17.928 km². As of 2007, the village had a population of 314 people. The village is located 30 km south of Smolyan. The village is recorded in records of the Ottoman Empire indicating 13 soldiers in the army were from the village. A census of 1912-1913 indicated a population of 200. Some of the inhabitants of the village are Pomaks and follow

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

as their main religion, others are Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians. Annually the Ilinden festival takes place every summer. Near the village of Arda, in the neighbourhoods of Gudevitsa and Lagat (birthplace of folk singer

Valya Balkanska Valya Mladenova Balkanska ( bg, Валя Младенова Балканска; born 8 January 1942) is a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope Mountains known locally for her wide repertoire of Balkan folk songs, but in the West mainly fo ...

) there are springs from one of the largest Bulgarian rivers, the

Arda Arda or ARDA may refer to: Places *Arda (Maritsa), a river in Bulgaria and Greece * Arda (Italy), a river in Italy *Arda (Douro), a river in Portugal * Arda, Bulgaria, a village in southern Bulgaria * Arda, County Fermanagh, a townland in County ...

, from which the village takes its name. In this neighbourhood is also a church, built in 1882.

Notable people

(1942–), Bulgarian folk singer * Vasil Angelov (1882–1953), Bulgarian revolutionary and military person * Dicho Uzunov (1921–), Bulgarian military person *

Asen Vasilev Asen Vaskov Vasilev ( bg, Асен Васков Василев; born 9 September 1977) is a Bulgarian politician, economist, and entrepreneur who is the current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance since 13 December 2021. He is the co-l ...

(1909–1987), carver, folk artist

References

Villages in Smolyan Province {{Smolyan-geo-stub