Teteven ( bg, Тетевен, ) is a town on the banks of the

Vit river The Vit also Vid ( bg, Вит; la, Utus) is a river in central northern Bulgaria with a length of 188 km. It is a tributary of Danube. The source of the Vit is in Stara Planina, below Vezhen Peak at an altitude of 2,030 m, and it empties in ...

, at the foot of Stara Planina mountain in north 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 Macedo ...

. It is the administrative centre of the

Teteven Municipality Teteven Municipality ( bg, Община Тетевен) is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Lovech Province, Central-North Bulgaria, located from the northern slopes of the central Stara planina mountain to the area of the Fore-Balkan. It is na ...

which is a part of

Lovech Province Lovech Province ( bg, Област Ловеч, translit=Oblast Lovech, former name Lovech okrug) is one of the 28 provinces of Bulgaria, lying at the northern centre of the country. It is named after its main city - Lovech. As of December 200 ...

. As of December 2010, the town had a population of 10,733 inhabitants.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - Bulgarian towns in 2009
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Geography

Teteven is located in a mountainous area, in the foothills of the Balkan mountains between the peaks Ostrich, Petrahilya, Cherven, Treskavets and Vezhen. The river Vit meanders through the town. The altitude of Teteven district varies from 340 to 2100 m, and in the town center it is 415 m. The climate is temperate continental with cold winters and cool summers. The territory of Teteven is about 697 km², which is 16.86% of the territory of Lovech district.

History

The town was first mentioned in a written document in 1421. It is thought that the town's name comes from the family of a certain Tetyo (''Tetyov rod''), who settled in the area and founded the town. Older variants of the town's name found in documents are ''Tetyuven'' and ''Tetyuvene''. A thriving city in the 16th and 17th centuries, Teteven was raided by organised Turkish brigand groups in 1801, burnt down and almost completely destroyed, with only four houses surviving out of a total of 3,000. The town later revived and was active in the armed struggle for Bulgarian independence in the 19th century, sheltering a revolutionary committee part of

Vasil Levski Vasil Levski ( bg, Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as , ), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed t ...

's organised rebel network. Each summer a large chess tournament, one of the biggest events in Bulgaria's chess calendar, is held in Teteven.

Honour

Teteven Glacier on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

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 ...

is named after Teteven.

Sights

Teteven combines the beauty of the surrounding scenery with the towering hills and peaks Petrahilya, Ostrich, Cherven and Ravni Kamak (they have witnessed many historical events), the cool breeze of the Vit river, and the spirit of centuries past, hovering in the multitude of monuments, ancient Bulgarian architecture, and customs and manners that have remained intact in time. Astounded by the sights revealed before him in his visit to the town, Ivan Vazov has exclaimed: "Had I not come to Teteven, I would have remained a foreigner to mother Bulgaria ... I have been wandering, I have been rambling, but I have not seen a more wondrous paradise." There is a historical museum in Teteven, which is among the Hundred National Tourist Sites of the Bulgarian Tourist Union.

Sights of Teteven and the Teteven district

* Glozhen Monastery * Saint Elijah Monastery (14th century) * All Saints Church * Kosnitza waterfall * Mother of God Shroud Chapel on Ostrich peak * Boev hill

Caves

* Saeva Dupka * Morovitza * Baiovitza * Draganchovitza * Rushova cave (near Gradezhnitza village)

Museums

* Teteven Historical Museum * Bobevska house museum * Hadzhiivanova house museum * Yorgova house museum

Regular events

* Autumn fair * Northern Song Feast (May) * The Feast of Teteven on November 1, the day the town was liberated from Ottoman domination in 1877 * Days of Mountain Water and Healing Tourism, Scientific Research Center of Medical Biophysics, Teteven municipality, June 11

Gallery

Teteven Town Hall.JPG, Teteven Municipality Hall File:Teteven Chitalishte.JPG, Teteven Chitalishte (Culture club) File:Saint All Saints Church in Teteven.JPG, All Saints Church in Teteven File:Teteven old house 01.JPG, A 19th-century house File:Teteven old house 02.JPG, A 19th-century house

Persons

Notable persons born in Teteven

* Lyubomir Bobevski — writer * Nikola Bobevski — artisan, elected Teteven delegate on the occasion of the signing of the San Stefano Peace Treaty * Valentin Bobevski — conductor * Sabo Dimitrov — artist * Mihail Ekimdzhiev — lawyer * Valentin Grozev (1950-2010) — artist * Ignat Ignatov — professor, biophysicist *

Usin Kerim Usin Kerim is a Bulgarian Romani poet. Kerim has come to prominence in the genre of Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani ...

— poet * Dimitar Krachidzhov — poet and publicist * Iva Krasteva — sports journalist, lives and works in London * Banyo Marinov (1853-1879) — revolutionary * Nikola Merekiov — actor and agriculturalist * Sava Mladenov — adherent of Vasil Levski and a revolutionary from Hristo Botev's armed group * Preslava Mravkova — singer (''Music Idol'') * Vera Naidenova — Bulgarian professor, film critic * Svilen Rusinov — sportsman, honorary citizen of Teteven * Hristo Spasunin (1923-2010) — poet and publicist * Ivailo Stanev — photographer * Nikola Tiholov — scriptwriter * Margarit Tzanev — artist * Ivan Undzhiev (1902-1979) — Bulgarian professor-historian * Nikolai Vitanov — professor, nuclear physicist * Hadji Stanyo Vrabevski — chairman of the local revolutionary committee, sent into exile in Diyarbakır

Notable persons who have died in Teteven

Georgi Benkovski Georgi Benkovski ( bg, Георги Бенковски) (1843 – 12 May 1876) was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev (Гаврил Груев Хлътев), a Bulgarian revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bu ...

(1843-1876) — Bulgarian revolutionary * Atanas Murdzhev (1875-1944) — Bulgarian revolutionary

References

External links

Teteven municipality portal (Bulgarian version)

Teteven Municipality, Scientific Research Center of Medical Biophysics {{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Populated places in Lovech Province