Gradets ( bg, Градец, "small town") is a village in southeastern
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, part of
Kotel municipality,
Sliven Province
Sliven Province ( bg, Област Сливен, former name Sliven okrug) is a province in southeastern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre—the city of Sliven. It embraces a territory of [independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...]
Venko Kavardzhikov, and the population of Gradets is 5,895, which makes it the second most populous village in Bulgaria, after
Aydemir
Aydemir ( bg, Айдемир, also ''Aidemir'', ''Ajdemir'') is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Silistra Municipality, Silistra Province. Aydemir has 5711 inhabitants in 2016, down from 9095 short after the fall of communism in 1992. ...
,
Silistra Province, and the most populous in
Bulgarian Thrace.
Gradets is situated in the Eastern
Balkan Mountains, along the valley of the
Luda Kamchiya
Luda Kamchiya ( bg, Луда Камчия , ) is a river in eastern Bulgaria, the main tributary of the Kamchiya river.Victor Fet, Alexi Popov; Biogeography and ecology of Bulgaria; 2007p.601/ref> The river has a total length of 180 km and a ...
. Gradets is characteristic because the vast majority of its residents are
Bulgarian Roma (in 2000, 5,500 of 6,000 according to the then-mayor). In the early 20th century, Gradets had only around twenty Roma households, but their number later grew rapidly.
Notable natives include politician
Petar Gudev (1862–1932), officer
Radko Dimitriev
Radko Dimitriev ( bg, Радко Димитриев) (24 September 1859 in Gradets – 18 October 1918 near Pyatigorsk) was a Bulgarian general, Head of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army from 1 January 1904 to 28 March 1907, as well ...
(1859–1918) and
Mustafa Shibil, a 19th-century Turkish
Muslim Roma
Xoraxane Roma in Balkan Romani language, are non- Vlax Romani people, who adopted Sunni Islam of Hanafi madhab at the time of the Ottoman Empire. Some of them are Derviş of Sufism belief, and the biggest Tariqa of Jerrahi is located at the ...
brigand who served as
Yordan Yovkov
Yordan Stefanov Yovkov ( bg, Йордан Стефанов Йовков) (November 9, 1880 – October 15, 1937) was a prominent Bulgarian writer from the interwar period.
Biography
Born in the village of Zheravna, Yovkov studied at First Sofia M ...
's prototype for a ''
hajduk
A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, p ...
'' character,
[https://rm.coe.int/ottoman-empire-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b193d ] as well as possibly the noted
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
Christian Rakovsky (1873–1941).
Gallery
Image:Gradets Chitalishte.JPG, The Nadezhda ''chitalishte
A ''chitalishte'' (, . Derives from the verb "чета" - "to read" or "читател" - "reader") is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building that fulfills several functions at once, such as a community centre, library, and a theat ...
'' (cultural centre), founded in 1869
Image:Gradets Fountain.JPG, The Parlapanov Fountain
Image:Gradets Main Street.JPG, The Main Street
References
Villages in Sliven Province
Romani communities in Bulgaria
{{Sliven-geo-stub