Kosti ( bg, Кости , , ''Kosti'') 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
Tsarevo Municipality
Tsarevo Municipality ( bg, Община Царево, ) is a municipality in Burgas Province, Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situa ...
,
Burgas Province
Burgas Province ( bg, Област Бургас, translit=Oblast Burgas, formerly the Burgas okrug) is a province in southeastern Bulgaria, including the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. The province is named after its administrative and ind ...
. It is located on the banks of the
Veleka
The Veleka ( , ) is a river in the very southeast of Bulgaria (Burgas Province), as well as the very northeast of European Turkey. It is 147 km long, of which 108 km lies in BulgariaStrandzha mountains not far from the Turkish border, 20-25 kilometres south of Tsarevo and 91 km southeast of
Burgas
Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a pop ...
. As of June 2008, it has a population of 320 /sup>. The village lies within
Strandzha Nature Park
Strandzha Nature Park ( bg, Природен парк Странджа ''Priroden park Strandzha'', also transliterated as Stranja Nature Park) is the largest protected area in Bulgaria spanning a territory of in the Strandzha Mountain in the ...
.
Traces of ancient metallurgical activity have been discovered in the vicinity of Kosti, as well as a big necropolis and several independent mounds of
Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
origin. The modern village was first mentioned in an Ottoman tax register of 1498, according to which Kosti's population consisted of 22 Christian families. It also featured in a 17th-century tax register, and during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 it was described as a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
village ''(see Greeks in Bulgaria)''. Statistics of 1898 count 185 Greek and 25
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
houses, whereas 1897 data only notes 300 Greek houses.
Kosti was one of the Greek villages of inland Strandzha, culturally and linguistically very distant from then-Greek-inhabited nearby coastal towns like Tsarevo (''Vassiliko'') and
Ahtopol
Ahtopol ( bg, Ахтопол , ) is a town and seaside resort on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.
Geography Location
It is located on a headland in the southeastern part of Burgas Province and is close to the border with European Turk ...
. The local houses differ significantly from the typical village houses of Strandzha and the town houses of the coast. The houses in Kosti typically have two stories of crude stone, with the top floor cased with thick
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
boards. They feature an unusually large
fireplace
A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design ...
on the top floor and the reported lack of any windows (which were later added by the Bulgarians who settled), as the only light to enter the room would come from a small opening in the ceiling called ''okno''. The population was mainly engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and logging (wood was in demand by the Ahtopol shipyard).
Kosti is a characteristic nestinari village, with a hundred of the 400 families being hereditary practitioners of this custom. Besides the old village
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
church, the village had another ritual building housing the eight nestinari
icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
s, including the main icon, that of feast and regional patron Saint Constantine.
Following the Balkan Wars, the village was ceded to Bulgaria by the Ottoman Empire, and the local Greeks moved to
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, particularly
Greek Macedonia
Macedonia (; el, Μακεδονία, Makedonía ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and Greek geographic region, with a population of 2.36 million in 2020. It is ...
and the villages of
Meliki
Meliki ( el, Μελίκη) is a village and a former municipality in Imathia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Alexandreia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 98.962&nbs ...
Kerkini
Kerkini ( el, Κερκίνη) is a village 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 a municipal unit. It is named after ancient K ...
Langadas
Lagkadas ( el, Λαγκαδάς, ) is a town and municipality in the northeast part of Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. There are 41103 residents in the municipality and 7764 of them live in the town of Lagkadas.
Lagkadas is located northeast o ...
( Thessaloniki regional unit). After 1914, the deserted village was settled by Bulgarian refugees from Turkish-ruled
Eastern Thrace
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
, particularly from Pirgoplo (100 families) and the town of Malak Samokov ( Demirköy; 60 families). The new settlers were also deeply engaged in logging, wood and charcoal production. A new church (at the place of the old church damaged in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising) of Saints
Cyril and Methodius
Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs".
They are credited wit ...
was built in 1909, as were a school and a community centre (''
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 ...
'') in 1925. The church features an imposing iconostasis by the woodcarver Pandil, as well as old icons, such as two from 1883 and 1901 by the painter Kosta Polixoido.
In January 2011 a foot-and-mouth disease
outbreak
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...