Stob ( bg, Стоб) is a village in southwest

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 ...

, administratively part of

Kocherinovo Municipality Kocherinovo Municipality is a municipality in Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of ...

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 populati ...

. Located at the foot of the

Rila Rila ( bg, Рила, ) is the highest mountain range of Bulgaria, the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula and Southeast Europe. It is situated in southwestern Bulgaria and forms part of the Rila–Rhodope Mountains, Rhodope Massif. The highest summit is Mus ...

mountains and not far from 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 situat ...

, Stob was first mentioned in the 7th century and has been in continuous or near-continuous existence since then. Stob is notable for the

Stob Earth Pyramids The Stob Earth Pyramids ( bg, Стобски пирамиди) are rock formations, known as Hoodoo (geology), hoodoos, situated at the foothills of the Rila mountain range in south-western Bulgaria. They span an area of 0.7 km2 near the vill ...

, a natural rock phenomenon in the vicinity of the village.

History and etymology

The village's name first appears in sources in a 7th-century

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

text as Στοβων (''Stovon''). It was also mentioned in a charter of

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

from 1019 after the

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...

. The first reference in

Old Bulgarian Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other ...

dates to 1378, when it appears in the Rila Charter of

Bulgarian Emperor In the medieval history of Europe, Bulgaria's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the ...

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 ...

as the "town of Stob" (ГРАДЪ СТѠБЪ). The charter emphasizes the

's independence from nearby Stob, among other privileges, and notes that the monastery's lands and properties bordered the town. A hagiography of Saint

John of Rila Saint John of Rila, a.k.a. Ivan of Rila (Bulgarian: Свети преподобни Йоан Рилски Чудотворец, Svеti prеpodobni Yoan Rilski Chudotvorеts; English: Saint (monk) John of Rila the Wondermaker) (876 – c. 946) was ...

from the 15th century refers to the village uniquely as ''Stog'' (СТОГЬ). However, a chronicle of

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 ...

n monarchs from the 15th–16th century reiterates the name ''Stob'', as does an Ottoman source from 1570. An Ottoman document from 1576 spells the name as ''Istob'' and ''Istub''. The name ''Stob'' is thought to derive from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

root ''*sto-bh-:*stei-'' ("to stand"), as retained in the Bulgarian word стобор ''stobor'' ("fence") and akin to words meaning "pole, pillar" in other

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...

(cf. Bulgarian стълб ''stalb''). The etymology may reflect the features of the surrounding terrain. The erroneous listing ''Stog'' is possibly explained by a

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...

linking the name to the presumably more popular term стог ''stog'' ("haystack"), from the related Proto-Indo-European ''*stogh-''.

Geography

The village is located south-southwest from 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 ...

and north of

Blagoevgrad Blagoevgrad ( bg, Благоевград ) is а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province. With a population of almost inhabitants, it is the economic and cultural centre ...

, next to the road to the town of

and the Rila Monastery. Stob lies between the small towns of Rila and Kocherinovo at the foot of the highest mountains in Bulgaria, the

mountains, and is crossed by 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. Geograp ...

. At the northeast end of Stob is the village's

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 Church of Saint

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...

. Stob's church is reportedly the only church in Bulgaria dedicated to this saint. The village's feast day is 17 July.

Stob Earth Pyramids

The Stob Pyramids are a natural rock phenomenon (a set of earth pyramids) located to the northeast of the village. The pyramids have been under state protection since 1964 as a protected site encompassing . The pyramids are rock formations up to high and around thick at the base. They vary in shape from sharp through conical to mushroomlike. Some of the columns are topped by flat stones. Groups of individual pyramids have been named the Towers, the Pinnacles and the Samodiva Chimneys. According to a popular local legend, the pyramids are in fact wedding guests who were petrifiedCompare the fate of

Phineus In Greek mythology, Phineus (; Ancient Greek: Φινεύς, ) or Phineas, was a king of Salmydessus in Thrace and seer, who appears in accounts of the Argonauts' voyage. Some accounts make him a king in PaphlagoniaScholia on Apollonius of Rhode ...

and other guests petrified at the wedding of

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...

and Andromeda. because the bride was so beautiful that the best man attempted to kiss her. Based on the legend, the local population has identified some of the pyramids as the best man, the groom, the bride and other attendants of the wedding ceremony.

References

{{Kocherinovo Municipality Villages in Kyustendil Province