Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern

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 Mac ...

, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province. It is situated at the foot of the central

Balkan Mountains The Balkan mountain range (, , known locally also as Stara planina) is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The range is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border be ...

, in the

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

of the Yantra River, and is known as an international capital of humour and satire (see Gabrovo humour), as well as noted for its Bulgarian National Revival

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

. Gabrovo is also known as the longest town in Bulgaria, stretching over 25 km along the Yantra, yet reaching only in width at places. The geographic center of Bulgaria - Uzana - is located near the town.

Name

According to the most widespread

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

, Gabrovo was founded by a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

called Racho, close to whose

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 desig ...

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornb ...

rose, so the settlement acquired its name, from the Slavic word ''gabar'' ("

") + the Slavic suffix ''-ovo''.

History

The area around Gabrovo, inhabited since the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

, gained

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

importance after

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...

became capital of the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conqu ...

in the 12th century. Craftsmanship and

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exch ...

prospered due to the proximity to both the capital and the

Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

passes.

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Gabrovo was a small pass village of about 100 houses. After the Ottoman invasion of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

in the 14th century, the demographic position of Gabrovo changed significantly, as it was the only settlement in a considerably large geographic area and an attractive place for

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not complete ...

fleeing from the conquered capital and neighbouring fortresses. It turned from a village into a small town (''palanka'') and began to develop as an economic, cultural and spiritual centre. Theophany Crucession in Bulgaria

During Ottoman rule, the rich tradesmen spent plenty of resources for the small town's public planning. The first Bulgarian secular school, the Aprilov National High School, was founded in Gabrovo in 1835 with the aid of Vasil Aprilov and

Nikolay Palauzov Nikolay Hristoforovich Palauzov ( bg, Николай Христофорович Палаузов) (1821 - 2 March 1899) was a Bulgarian-Russian journalist and a Bulgarian Renaissance activist. Palauzov was born in Gabrovo. He initially studied in ...

. Gabrovo was officially proclaimed a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

by the Ottoman authority in May 1860. In the 1870s

Felix Kanitz Felix Philipp Kanitz ( he, פליקס פיליפ קאניץ. 2 August 1829 – 8 January 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian naturalist, geographer, ethnographer, archaeologist, painter and author of travel notes, of Jewish heritage. Biography Kanitz w ...

said that Gabrovo is "a big workshop" and that it is a "city that lives from the water," referring to widely used water power. The glory of the goods of Gabrovo became known throughout the Ottoman Empire, and beyond that, in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

even nowadays there is a street named "Gabroveni". Shortly before and after the

Liberation of Bulgaria The Liberation of Bulgaria is the historical process as a result of the Bulgarian Revival. In Bulgarian historiography, the liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) that led to the re-establishme ...

in 1878, Gabrovo developed as a centre of industry on the basis of its economic traditions. Joint-stock companies emerged, factories were constructed and connections to the large

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...

s were created, prompting some to label the town "The Bulgarian

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God Church Gabrovo TB1

Population

Gabrovo saw its most rapid growth in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

years, when its population was doubled. Following general population trends in Bulgaria, the number of citizens started declining after the fall of Communism in the country. People started emigrating abroad or to the capital of

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, 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. ...

. Currently, Gabrovo is more than 20,000 people short of its peak, achieved in the period 1985-1991 when the number of the residents exceeded 80,000. The following table presents the change of the population after the liberation of the country in 1887. According to Census 2011, , the population of the town was 58,950 inhabitants.National Statistical Institute - Main Towns Census 2011

Ethnic, linguistic and religious composition

According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows: *

: 54,227 (97.9%) * Turks: 473 (0.9%) *

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

: 343 (0.6%) *Others: 193 (0.3%) *Indefinable: 151 (0.3%) **Undeclared: 3,563 (6.0%) Total: 58,950 The ethnic composition of Gabrovo Municipality is 60,207 Bulgarians, 504 Turks and 367 Roma among others.

Culture

Internationally known as a centre of humour and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

, Gabrovo has two theatres, the Racho Stoyanov Drama Theatre and the puppet theatre, a

House of Humour and Satire The House of Humour and Satire ( bg, Дом на Хумора и Сатирата; ''Dom na Humora i Satirata'') in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, is an exposition of traditional local humour art, including cartoons, photographs, paintings, sculptures, and verb ...

that serves as a cultural institute, a centre, museum and gallery to popularise comic art. There is a cinema, Aleko Cinema, and museums and memorial houses in the town and around it, most notably the Etar Architectural-Ethnographic Complex and the National Museum of Education at the Aprilov National High School. On a Saturday around the week of May 21, Gabrovo hosts an annual Carnival of Humor and Satire with the slogan in Bulgarian “Da izkukurigame ot smyah” (translating to "Let`s go nuts from laughter"). On the day of the carnival, the streets of Gabrovo town are overflowing with fun characters like masked musketeers, bullfighters, shamans, gypsies, and much more. The carnival is also popular for its use of traditional Balkan songs, folklore choreography, and a rich display of Gabrovo humour and culture. A

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

is in operation.

Tourism

Places of interest in Gabrovo include the

and Aprilov National High School. In Gabrovo Province sites include architectural reserve Bozhentsi. Hiking is widely available in the

Central Balkan National Park The Central Balkan National Park ( bg, Национален парк Централен Балкан) lies in the heart of Bulgaria, nestled in the central and higher portions of the Balkan Mountains. Its altitude varies from 550 m. near the town ...

and in the Bulgarka Nature Park, itself home to Ethnographic Complex Etara, Dryanovo Monastery, Sokolski Monastery, Shipka Pass, and the Uzana area. For admirers of historical tourism Shipka Memorial is a must-see. Gabrovo is member of the Creative Tourism Network ®.

Sports

*Town's most successfully sports club is FC Yantra Gabrovo, which was founded in 1919. *The town also has long handball traditions. *About from the town in Central

is located the renowned winter resort Uzana.

Honors

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term '' ...

2206 Gabrova 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second ...

discovered on April 1, 1976 by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

astronomer

Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh (russian: Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х) (6 October 1931 – 25 May 2004Казакова, Р.К. Памяти Николая Степановича Черных'. Труды Государст ...

is named in honor of the town. Gabrovo Knoll 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 195 ...

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 co ...

is named after Gabrovo.

Notable people

* Vasil Aprilov (1789-1847) - revivalist and educator; founder of the first secular school in Bulgaria *

(1821-1899) - merchant, donated money for the Gabrovian school *

Ivan Kolchev Kalpazanov Ivan Kolchev Kalpazanov ( bg, Иван Колчев Калпазанов) is an industrialist, ancestor of the modern industry in Gabrovo and Kingdom of Bulgaria (1882). Biography Ivan Kolchev Kalpazanov was born in 1835 in the village Kalpaza ...

(1835-1889) - industrialist, ancestor of the modern industry in Gabrovo and Kingdom of Bulgaria (1882) *

Vasil Nikolov Karagiosov Vasil Nikolov Karagiosov (Bulgarian: Васил Николов Карагьозов) was a Bulgarian teacher, politician, industrialist and honorary German vice-consul in Gabrovo. Biography Vasil Nikolov Karagiosov was born in Tarnovo (today na ...

(1856-1938) - teacher, industrialist, politician, German vicecouncul, monk in the Zograf monastery,

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the peni ...

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 wit ...

Ivan Hadji Berov Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgar ...

(1858-1934) - industrialist- lit the first light bulb in Bulgaria - erected the first hydro electric power plant in Gabrovo *

Tsanko Dyustabanov Tsanko Hristov Dyustabanov ( bg, Цанко Христов Дюстабанов) (May 13, 1844 – June 15, 1876) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and participant in the April uprising of 1876. Dyustabanov was born in Gabrovo in today's Bulgaria, w ...

(1844-1876) - revolutionary * Christo Yavashev (1935-2020) - installation artist *Petar Rúsеv - father of former

Brazilian president The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first w ...

Education

University

Gabrovo has one of the biggest technical universities in

, the Technical University of Gabrovo. The technical university in Gabrovo opened in 1964. The idea for the university came from the 1840s. Today the university has about 5400 students; around 60 of them are from other countries.

Twin towns – sister cities

Gabrovo is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Aalst, Belgium *

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

, Ukraine * Kumanovo, North Macedonia *

Mittweida Mittweida () is a town in Saxony, Germany, in the Mittelsachsen district. Geography Mittweida is situated on the river Zschopau (river), Zschopau, 18 km north of Chemnitz, and 54 km west of Dresden. Embedded within the steep hills and ...

, Germany *

Mogilev Mogilev (russian: Могилёв, Mogilyov, ; yi, מאָלעוו, Molev, ) or Mahilyow ( be, Магілёў, Mahilioŭ, ) is a city in eastern Belarus, on the Dnieper River, about from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from the bor ...

, Belarus * Mytischi, Russia *

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; hu, Újszandec; yi, Tzanz, צאַנז; sk, Nový Sonč; german: Neu-Sandez) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. It ha ...

, Poland *

Panevėžys Panevėžys (; Latin: ''Panevezen''; pl, Poniewież; yi, פּאָנעװעזש, ''Ponevezh''; see also other names) is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied with 113,653 inhabitants. As defined by Eurostat, the populatio ...

, Lithuania *

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Jews of the Old Yishuv, and became a permanent s ...

, Israel *

Prešov Prešov (, hu, Eperjes, Rusyn language, Rusyn and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Пряшів) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj) and Šariš, as well as the historic Sáros Cou ...

, Slovakia * Shaki, Azerbaijan *

Sisak Sisak (; hu, Sziszek ; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavin ...

, Croatia *

Thun Thun (french: Thoune) is a town and a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located where the Aare flows out of Lake Thun (Thunersee), southeast of Bern. the municipality has almost ...

, Switzerland

References

External links

Gabrovo municipality's home page
{{Authority control Populated places in Gabrovo Province