Pastra ( bg, Пастра) is a small mountain village in the

Rila Municipality Rila Municipality ( bg, Рила) is located in southeastern Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria. Its administrative centre is Rila, Bulgaria, Rila. The municipality covers an area of , of which 54.84% is forests and only 19.3% is arable.. , the populat ...

Kyustendil Province Kyustendil Province ( bg, Област Кюстендил, trl ''Oblast Kyustendil'') is a province in southwestern Bulgaria, extending over an area of (constituting 2.7% of the total territory of the Republic of Bulgaria), and with a populat ...

in south-western

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 ...

and as of 2013 has 151 inhabitants. It lies at the western foothills of the Rila Mountains on the banks of the

Rilska River The Rilska River ( bg, Рилска река, ''Rilska reka'', "Rila River") is a river in south-western Bulgaria, a left tributary of the Struma. The river is 51 km long and drains the western sections of the Rila mountain range. Geogra ...

just outside the borders of the

Rila Monastery Nature Park Rila Monastery Nature Park ( bg, Природен парк „Рилски манастир“) is one of the largest nature parks in Bulgaria, spanning a territory of in the western part of the Rila mountain range at an altitude between . It is ...

. It is situated at 8 km east of the municipal centre Rila, 12 km west of the

Rila Monastery The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery "Sveti Ivan Rilski" ( bg, Рилски манастир „Свети Иван Рилски“), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situate ...

and some 63 km south of the national 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 h ...

. In the Middle Ages the village was part of the Bulgarian Empire. Pastra was first mentioned in written records in the 14th century Rila Charter of Emperor

Ivan Shishman Ivan Shishman ( bg, Иван Шишман) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Tarnovo from 1371 to 3 June 1395. The authority of Ivan Shishman was limited to the central parts of the Bulgarian Empire. In the wake of the death of Ivan Alexan ...

(r. 1371–1395), where it was listed as a possession of the Rila Monastery. It gives its name to the

Pastra Glacier Pastra Glacier ( bg, ледник Пастра, lednik Pastra, ) is a 4.8 km long and 2 km wide glacier in the central part of Trinity Island in the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. Draining northwards to flow into Milburn Bay. The gl ...

in the central part of

Trinity Island Trinity Island or Île de la Trinité or Isla Trinidad is an island long and wide in the northern part of the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. It lies east of Hoseason Island, south of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, and nor ...

in the

Palmer Archipelago Palmer Archipelago, also known as Antarctic Archipelago, Archipiélago Palmer, Antarktiske Arkipel or Palmer Inseln, is a group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends from Tower Island in the north to Anver ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

.SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
Pastra Glacier.

Citations

{{Rila Municipality Villages in Kyustendil Province