Gradets (, "small town") is a village in southeastern
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
, part of
Kotel municipality,
Sliven Province. It lies at , 380 m above sea level. As of 2019, the mayor is Vesselin Urunov of the GERB party (
Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) and the population of Gradets is 2,434, which makes it the second most populous village in Bulgaria, after
Aydemir
Aydemir (, also ''Aidemir'', ''Ajdemir'') is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Silistra Municipality, Silistra Province. Aydemir had 5711 inhabitants in 2016, down from 9095 short after the fall of communism in 1992. It is the second ...
,
Silistra Province
Silistra Province (, ''Oblast Silistra'') is a province of Bulgaria. Formerly known as the Silistra okrug, it is located on the northeast corner of Bulgaria. The province is part of the Southern Dobrudja region, with its largest and major city ...
, and the most populous in
Bulgarian Thrace.
Gradets is situated in the Eastern
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...
, along the valley of the
Luda Kamchiya. Gradets is characteristic because the vast majority of its residents are
Bulgarian Roma (in 2000, 5,500 of 6,000 according to the then-mayor). In the early 20th century, Gradets had only around twenty Roma households, but their number later grew rapidly.
Notable natives include politician
Petar Gudev (1862–1932), officer
Radko Dimitriev (1859–1918) and
Mustafa Shibil, a 19th-century Turkish
Muslim Roma
Muslim Romani people or Muslim Roma are people who are ethnically Romani and profess Islam. They may also be known as Muslim Gypsies, with some Roma preferring to use the term, not perceiving it as derogatory. They primarily live in the Balkan ...
brigand who served as
Yordan Yovkov's prototype for a ''
hajduk
A hajduk (, plural of ) is a type of Irregular military, irregular infantry found in Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries, especially from Hajdú–Bihar Count ...
'' character,
as well as possibly the noted
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Georgiyevich Rakovsky ( – September 11, 1941), Bulgarian name Krastyo Georgiev Rakovski, born Krastyo Georgiev Stanchov, was a Bulgarian-born socialist Professional revolutionaries, revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet Un ...
(1873–1941).
Gallery
Image:Gradets Chitalishte.JPG, The Nadezhda ''chitalishte
A ''chitalishte'' (, ) is a traditional Bulgarian public institution and building that fulfills several functions at once, such as a community centre, public library, and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people o ...
'' (cultural centre), founded in 1869
Image:Gradets Fountain.JPG, The Parlapanov Fountain
Image:Gradets Main Street.JPG, The Main Street
References
Villages in Sliven Province
Romani communities in Bulgaria
{{Sliven-geo-stub