Kalotina ( bg, Калотина ) is a village in the

Dragoman Municipality Dragoman Municipality is a municipality in Sofia Province, Bulgaria. Demography According to the 2011 census, there are 5,362 people living in the municipality of Dragoman, down from 17,187 people in 1934. Most inhabitants live in the town of Drag ...

Sofia Province Sofia Province ( bg, Софийска област, translit=Sofiyska oblast) is a province (''oblast'') of Bulgaria. The province does not include Sofia in its territories, but Sofia remains its administrative center. The province borders on t ...

, in westernmost central

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 Macedon ...

. As of 2010, it has 270 inhabitants and the mayor is Lidia Bozhilova. The village is located at the border with

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, 55 km to the northwest of the capital

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, on the main highway and railway between

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Kalotina lies at , 282 metres above sea level. The place is known for the Kalotina- Gradinje

border checkpoint A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders ofte ...

, one of Bulgaria's busiest and best known due to the proximity to Sofia. The Nishava River, a tributary of the

South Morava The South Morava ( Macedonian and Serbian: Јужна Морава, ''Južna Morava'', ; sq, Lumi Morava) is a river in eastern Kosovo and in southern Serbia, which represents the shorter headwater of Great Morava. Today, it is 295 km lon ...

, flows nearby. The village was first mentioned in 1453 with its present name. In a 1576 source, it was referred to as ''Kalotine''. Kalotina's name is the feminine form of an adjective derived from the

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

Kalota (Калота); it is an

ellipse In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focus (geometry), focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special ty ...

, as no noun is part of the name. The village has a medieval

Bulgarian Orthodox The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...

church dedicated to

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

which built in the 14th century, during the rule of

Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria Ivan Alexander ( bg, Иван Александър, transliterated ''Ivan Aleksandǎr'', ; original spelling: ІѠАНЪ АЛЄѮАНдРЪ), also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (''Tsar'') of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, ...

(as indicated by an inscription in the church). It was richly decorated with murals, although they have been badly preserved. The church donors are thought to have been Deyan and Vladislava from the church in

Kučevište Kučevište ( mk, Кучевиште) is the largest village in the municipality of Čučer-Sandevo, North Macedonia. Demographics According to the 2002 census, the village had a total of 3,167 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the village include:Mac ...

, and the church was likely built between 1331 and 1334 or 1337.

References

{{Sofia-geo-stub Villages in Sofia Province Bulgaria–Serbia border crossings