Varbovo () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in northwestern

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 has a population of 93 as of 2022.

Geography

The village is situated at an altitude of 480 m western part of the Fore-Balkan, a mountainous chain straddling north of and in parallel with the

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 ...

. North of the settlement runs the Varbovska reka, a right tributary of the

Stakevska reka The Stakevska reka () is a river in northwestern Bulgaria, a left tributary of the Lom, itself a right tributary of the Danube. Its length is 34 km. Geography The river takes its source under the name Zheleznata reka at an altitude of 1, ...

of the Lom river basin. There is a small reservoir west of the village. Varbovo is the starting point of several hiking trails leading to the Vedrenik Ridge. Administratively, it is part of

Chuprene Municipality Chuprene Municipality () is a frontier Municipalities of Bulgaria, municipality (''obshtina'') in Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located in the vicinity of the western parts of Stara Planina range in the so-called Fore-Balkan area. It is n ...

, situated in the southern part of

Vidin Province Vidin Province () is the northwesternmost province of Bulgaria. It borders Serbia to the west and Romania to the northeast, and its administrative centre is the city of Vidin on the Danube river. The area is divided into 11 municipalities. As ...

, and has a territory of 41.19 km². It lies close to the Bulgaria–Serbia border some 4 km northwest of the municipal center

Chuprene Chuprene (, ) is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Vidin Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Chuprene Municipality, which lies in the southern part of Vidin Province. The village is located 20 kilometres from ...

, which is the closest settlement, and 10 km south of the town of

Belogradchik Belogradchik (; ) is a town in Vidin Province, northwestern Bulgaria, and is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality. The town is situated in the foothills of the Balkan Mountains just east of the Serbian border and about 50&nb ...

. There are two roads, one leading to Chuprene, and another heading to the village of Borovitsa.

History and culture

In the Middle Ages the area around Varbovo was part of the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

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 ...

s until it fell to the Ottmans in the late 14th or early 15th century during the

Bulgarian–Ottoman wars The Bulgarian–Ottoman wars were fought between the kingdoms remaining from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, in the second half of the 14th century. The wars resulted in the collapse and subordination of the ...

. The village participated in the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi uprising of 1688. Many locals participated in the Uprising in Northwestern Bulgaria of 1850, also known as the Belogradchik uprising. Todor Iliev from Varbovo was the only member from the region of Belogradchik of

Hristo Botev Hristo Botev (, ), born Hristo Botyov Petkov (Христо Ботьов Петков; – ), was a Bulgarian revolutionary and poet. Botev is considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero. His poetry is a prim ...

's armed group, which fought the Ottomans in 1876. The local Church of St John the Baptist is located not far from the center of the village and is considered to be among the oldest standing church building in the region. According to the archives of the Eparchy of Vidin, in its current form it had already existed in 1600, although there are records suggesting that it had been founded in 1360 during the Second Bulgarian Empire. Its frescoes are dated from 1652, as testified the inscription in the nave.

Citations

References

* {{Authority control Villages in Vidin Province