Okolia ( bg, Околия, plural: Околии) is a former
administrative unit in
Bulgaria established after the
Tarnovo Constitution (Art. 3) adopted on 16 April 1879.
On 16 April 1879 in the old Bulgarian capital
Veliko Tarnovo all 229 deputies in the Constituent Assembly signed the first Constitution of the
Principality of Bulgaria
The Principality of Bulgaria ( bg, Княжество България, Knyazhestvo Balgariya) was a vassal state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. It was established by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
After the Russo-Turkish War ende ...
which defined the administrative division of this country:
From 1885 to 1947 the okolia was the secondary administrative territorial unit after the primary unit (okrazhie, okrag, oblast). In 1947 during the
People's Republic of Bulgaria the oblasts were closed and 102 okolias remained as the primary administrative territorial unit of which 7 were urban (Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Varna, Ruse and Pleven). In 1959 the 117 okolias were abolished, and the People's Republic of Bulgaria was divided into 30
okrags .
References
{{Slavic terms for country subdivisions
Subdivisions of Bulgaria