Lovech (, ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in north-central

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 ...

. It is the administrative centre of the

Lovech Province Lovech Province (, former name Okrug, 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 2009, the population of the area was151,153.

and of the subordinate

Lovech Municipality Lovech Municipality () is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Lovech Province, Central-North Bulgaria, located on the border between the area of the Fore-Balkan and the Danubian Plain. It is named after its administrative centre - the city of Lovec ...

. The city is located about northeast from the capital city of

Sofia Sofia 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 part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

. Near Lovech are the towns of

Pleven Pleven ( ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest economic center in ...

Troyan Troyan ( ) is a town remembering the name of Roman Emperor Trajan, in Lovech Province in central Bulgaria . It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Troyan Municipality. The town is about away from the country capital Sofia. The river ...

and

Teteven Teteven (, ) is a town on the banks of the Vit, at the foot of the Balkan mountains in north central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Teteven Municipality which is a part of Lovech Province. As of December 2010, the town had a po ...

Name

The name is possibly derived from the Slavic root ''lov'', "hunting" + the Slavic suffix ''-ech''.

Geography

Lovech is situated in the Forebalkan area of northern Bulgaria, on both sides of the river

Osam The Osam ( ) is a river in northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. Its length including the main stem Cherni (Black) Osam is 314 km, making it the fifth longest river in Bulgaria. The river proper, formed by the confluence of the ...

, and unifies both mountainous and plain relief. The eastern part of the town is surrounded by a 250 m high plateau, where the largest park in Lovech, ''Stratesh'', is located, and the southwestern part is surrounded by the hills ''Hisarya'' and ''Bash Bunar''. In the northwest the relief gradually changes to the plains of the neighbouring

Pleven Province Pleven Province ( or Плевенска Област) is a province located in central northern Bulgaria, bordering the Danube river, Romania and the Bulgarian provinces of Vratsa, Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech. It is divided into 11 subdivisions ...

. The average altitude of Lovech is about 200 m above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. The highest point of the town is ''Akbair Hill'' at 450 m. In Stratesh Park, the highest place in the town, there are a great number of lilac bushes, easily seen from the whole town, which are a wonderful view in the spring. Due to this, Lovech is well known as the town of the

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly ...

Population

According to the census, held in February, 2011, Lovech is populated by 36,600 inhabitants within city limits. In the 1880s the population of Lovech numbered about 7,000. Since then it started growing decade by decade, mostly because of the migrants from the rural areas and the surrounding smaller towns, with a peak in the period 1987-1991 when exceeded 50,000 residents. After this time, the population has started decreasing rapidly in consequence of the poor economic situation in the Bulgarian provinces during the 1990s that led to a new migration in the direction of the country capital Sofia and abroad.

Ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition

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

Bulgarians Bulgarians (, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, ...

: 32,706 (95.2%) *

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

: 919 (2.7%) *

Gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

: 411 (1.2%) *Others: 120 (0.3%) *Indefinable: 201 (0.6%) **Undeclared: 2,243 (6.1%) Total: 36,600 The ethnic composition of

is 43,223 Bulgarians, 2,321 Turks, and 665 Gypsies among others. Following the census of 1926 Professor

Anastas Ishirkov Academic professor Anastas Todorov Ishirkov (; 5 April 1868 – 6 April 1937) was a Bulgarian scientist, geographer and ethnographer. He was the founder of geographical science in Bulgaria and was a member of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Honours ...

noted the homogeneity of the population which is 95% of Bulgarian origin.

History

Ancient history

Lovech is one of the oldest towns in Bulgaria. Traces of human activities from very ancient times were found in the region, mainly in the caves near the town. The reason was the comfortable location between the mountains and the flat country, and the presence of a river. The first inhabitants of the town were the

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

tribe of the Meldi, whose traces date back to the 4th or 3rd centuries BC. They founded their capital, called ''Melta'', in the area, which was situated at the place of today's neighbourhood and architecture reserve ''Varosha''. Later, when the Balkans were occupied by the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, a military station called ''Prezidium'' was founded near the modern town, which was situated at an important strategic position on one of the main Roman roads. Parts of this road are to be seen in the territory of Lovech today.

Middle Ages

The former Roman citadel Hisarya, which is situated on the hill of the same name, was the place where in 1187 the peace treaty between the

Bulgarian Empire Bulgarian Empire may refer to: * First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led b ...

and the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

was signed and the returning of Bulgaria on the European map was officially declared, marking the beginning of the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1422. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

. In the 12th century, Lovech was a great trade centre and one of the most famous towns in Bulgaria. Ivan Alexander was appointed to govern the city by 1330, most likely being appointed due to Lovech being a major city that controlled commercial passage through the

Stara Planina The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs for about , first ...

passes, and the migration of intellectuals to

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

and

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

, due to Ottoman conquests, resulting in the beginning of the

Despotate of Lovech The Despotate of Lovech (), was a Bulgarian state, covering parts of the territory of what is now Lovech Province, formed in 1330 after Ivan Alexander was appointed to govern Lovech, the capital of the despotate, and the nearby area around the ...

The Turkish invasion in the middle of the 14th century did not pass the town, but the Hisarya fortress was captured last of all, in 1446.

Ottoman rule

For a long time after conquest, the town enjoyed some privileges such as a prohibition on Turkish people to settle in the town or to take Bulgarian children as

janissaries A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted du ...

. In the 17th century, Lovech (''Lofça'' in

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

) was once again an important trade centre and one of the richest towns in Bulgaria, a reason for the town being called ''Altın Lofça'' (''Golden Lovech'', from

) at the time. In the times of revolutionary organisations against the Ottoman rule, Lovech was the centre of operations of the

Internal Revolutionary Organisation The Internal Revolutionary Organisation (IRO; ) was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded and built up by Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski between 1869 and 1871. The organisation represented a network of regional revolution ...

Vasil Levski Vasil Levski (, spelled in Reforms of Bulgarian orthography, old Bulgarian orthography as , ), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a Folk hero, national ...

, called the ''Secret Revolutionary Committee''. He was arrested by the Turkish military in a village near Lovech called Kakrina and later hanged in

. The biggest museum of Vasil Levski in Bulgaria, which contains several personal items such as notebooks, clothes, and weapons. It is situated in the old town part of Lovech. Between 1872 and 1874, the Bulgarian master-builder Nikola Fichev, known also as

Kolyu Ficheto Nikola Fichev (; 1800 in Direnova, Ottoman Empire – 1881 in Veliko Tarnovo, Principality of Bulgaria), commonly known as Kolyo Ficheto () or with his Turkish honorific Usta (Master) Kolyo Ficheto, was a Bulgarian National Revival architect, bu ...

, built the famous

Covered Bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

(Покрит мост) over the river Osam, the only one of its kind in the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with 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 throug ...

. The bridge was burned out in 1925, but rebuilt in 1931. Now it connects the new and the old part of the town and it's full of cafes, small restaurants and many souvenir shops. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, an important battle was held at Lovech, known as the

Battle of Lovcha The Battle of Lovcha, ''or Loftcha'' (today Lovech), took place during the siege of Plevna. Russian forces successfully reduced the fortress at Lovcha, which had protected Plevna's communication and supply lines. It was a part of the Russo-T ...

. The war and several plagues and migrations in

drastically reduced the population. There was a substantial number of victims from the Bulgarian population. Many Turkish families were expelled by the Russian army and the Muslims of Lovech known to be "Lofçalılar" have immigrated to several parts of Turkey (mainly

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

and

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

Modern times

In more recent times, Lovech was the place where modern foreign language education in Bulgaria started. Taking over from the American college established there in 1881, the first foreign language school in Bulgaria was set up in Lovech in 1950. Initially three languages were taught in this school: English, French and German. However soon after that the teaching of English and French was moved to Sofia and Varna respectively, founding the first language schools in these cities: the

First English Language School The First English Language School (FELS, 114th High School "Liliana Dimitrova") was founded in 1958 in Sofia, Bulgaria as a high school for education in English language to Bulgarian students. The school had been located at 60 Dondukov Street ...

in Sofia in 1954 and the French Language School in Varna in 1958. Since for the period 1959-1984 German was the only language taught, the school in Lovech was informally known as The German School (Немската гимназия).

Economy

On April 9, 2009,

Great Wall Motor Great Wall Motor Company Limited ( zh, s=长城汽车, hp=Chángchéng Qìchē), trading as GWM, is a Chinese automobile manufacturer headquartered in Baoding, Hebei, China. Named after the Great Wall of China, the company largely produces sport-u ...

and the Bulgarian company Litex Motors signed a contract for building a production base that would manufacture three models of the Chinese manufacturer near Lovech. The new plant was opened on February 21, 2012. The investment is worth around 97 million euros and will create 2,000 new jobs over the first four years. It will be Great Wall Motor's gate of entering the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

market, thanks to the zero tariff levels.

Main sights

* The

* The monument of Vasil Levski * The monuments to Russian soldiers killed in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 * The Varosha old town part * Stratesh Park with Lovech Zoo, the biggest zoo in the province * Bash Bunar Park * The baroque buildings in the town's central parts * The Varosha architectural and historical reserve, with Drasova and Rashova memorial houses

Theatres

* Lovech Drama Theatre * Theatre by the Nauka Community Centre * The summer theatre in Stratesh Park

Museums

* Museum of Vasil Levski * Lovech Historical Museum * Drasova Memorial House * Rashova Memorial House * Saint Kliment Ohridski School

Sports

PFC Litex Lovech FC Lovech (; formerly Litex Lovech) is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Lovech, that competes in the Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria), Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Spor ...

, one of Bulgaria's top football clubs * Osam, a men's handball club * Lovech '98, a women's handball club * Eagles, a baseball club * A wrestling club * A

kyokushin is a style of karate originating in Japan. It is a full-contact style of stand-up fighting and is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline, and hard training. Kyokushin Kaikan is the martial arts organization founded in 1964 ...

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

club * Progress, a chess club * Fencing club * Acrobatic rock’n’roll club “Rocksmile”

Notable people

Joseph I of Bulgaria Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

— Bulgarian exarch * Georgi Ivanov — the first Bulgarian cosmonaut *

Dimitar Dimov Dimitar Todorov Dimov (, 25 June 1909 – 1 April 1966) was a Bulgarian dramatist, novelist and veterinary surgeon. Biography Born in Lovech, Dimov is best known for his best-selling novel Tobacco (, translit. ''Tyutyun'', 1951) which ...

— Bulgarian author *

Simeon Djankov Simeon Dyankov (, also Djankov; born July 13, 1970) is a Bulgarian economist and chairman of the Fiscal Council since March 2025. From 2009 to 2013, he was the deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria in the government of Boyko ...

— economist *

— noted geographer *

Panayot Pipkov Panayot Hristov Pipkov () (21 November 1871 – 25 August 1942) was a Bulgarian composer. He studied music in Milan, Italy, and taught in Lovech and Sofia. He was the father of composer Lyubomir Pipkov.Ahmed Cevdet Pasha Ahmed Cevdet Pasha or Jevdet Pasha in English (22 March 1822 – 25 May 1895) was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman scholar, intellectual, bureaucrat, administrator, and historian who was a prominent figure in the Tanzimat reforms of the Ottoman Empir ...

— Ottoman scholar, intellectual, bureaucrat, administrator, and historian

Partner towns

Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and ea ...

, Albania *

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

, Germany * Iziaslav, Ukraine *

Kolašin Kolašin (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Колашин, ) is a town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 2,989 (2003 census). Kolašin is the centre of Kolašin Municipality (population 9,949) and an unofficial centre of Morača region, nam ...

, Montenegro * Laval, France *

Lotoshino Lotoshino () is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Lotoshinsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is the least populous administrative center of a district in Moscow Oblast. Population: Lotoshin ...

, Russia *

Ryazan Ryazan (, ; also Riazan) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 C ...

, Russia *

Syktyvkar Syktyvkar (, , ; , ) is the capital city of the Komi Republic in Russia, as well as its largest city. It is also the administrative center of the Syktyvkar Urban Okrug. Until 1930, it was known as Ust-Sysolsk after the Sysola, Sysola River. Ety ...

, Russia *

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

, Spain

Honours

Lovech Heights in

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after the city, and Melta Point on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetland Islands, South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands north of the ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

is named after the ancient Melta.Melta Point.

SCAR A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrosis, fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other Organ (anatomy), organs, and biological tissue, t ...

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about th ...

Gallery

File:Lovech-centre-imagesfrombulgaria.JPG, Central Lovech File:Lovech-centre-imagesfrombulgaria2.JPG, Central Lovech File:Lovech-oldtown-imagesfrombulgaria.JPG, Bulgarian National Revival quarter, ''Varosha'' File:Lovech-fortress-imagesfrombulgaria.JPG, The Hisarya Fortress File:Bulgaria-Lovech-03.jpg, The Covered Bridge File:Bulgaria-Lovech-04.jpg File:Bulgaria-Lovech-05.jpg File:Bulgaria-Lovech-06.jpg File:Lovech.jpg

References

External links

Site about Lovech in Bulgarian, English and Spanish

Lovech Today News

Lovech News
- News from Lovech
Lovech Party Fest Fan Site

Tourist information and accommodation

Guide to Lovech district — cities, villages, resorts

All about the town and the municipality of Lovech

Article at Visit to Bulgaria

Pictures from Lovech

Ezikovata — the oldest foreign language school in Bulgaria, unofficial web site

Unofficial website of Lovech

News and information from Lovech and area, business navigator, pictures from Lovech

The home of Velko Kichukov, one of the pioneers of the sociology and political socialism in Bulgaria.
{{Authority control Lovech Populated places in Lovech Province