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125-542: Chiprovtsi is thought to have been founded in the Late Middle Ages as a mining and metalsmithing centre. Attracting German ore miners who introduced Roman Catholicism to the area, the town grew in importance as a cultural, economic, and religious centre of the Bulgarian Catholics and the entire Bulgarian northwest during the first few centuries of Ottoman rule. The apogee of this upsurge

250-620: A mayor ( kmet ), a deputy mayor and a secretary. Since 2007, the municipality has been governed by Zaharin Ivanov Zamfirov of Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" who won the municipal elections with 1,615 votes or 62.67% against Antoaneta Todorova Kostova of the Bulgarian Socialist Party who amassed 962 votes or 37.33%. Two villages in the municipality are eligible to elect their own mayor, Prevala and Zhelezna. The municipal administration

375-412: A primary school (grades 1–4) and a high school (grades 4–12); both claim to be successors of the school founded in 1624. The two schools service the entire municipality, as the six schools in the larger villages have been closed. In 1977, the high school was visited by about 600 students; the number slightly declined to 400 in 1989. In 2008, it was only visited by 142 children. Chiprovtsi's kindergarten

500-409: A sound shift and a syncope . The name is of Slavic origin, but may be linked to the archaic Greek loanword kipos (κήπος, "garden"), a word also borrowed by Serbian . Some researchers derive the toponym from the personal name Kipra or Kipro , implying beauty and sprightliness. Another popular hypothesis, although rejected by Duridanov, links the name to Latin cuprum (" copper ") due to

625-801: A tributary state of the Ottoman Empire , centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in Greece . With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished. The Bulgarian Empire was in decline by the 14th century, and the ascendancy of Serbia was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330. By 1346,

750-406: A Bulgarian company that had leased the mine for 20 years. The company has invested BGN 14.5 million and aims to extract 150,000 tonnes of raw material and produce 50,000 tonnes of pure fluorite a year. As of 2008, the company employs 73 miners, all former workers in the closed local mines, and expects their number to reach 150. In 2016, the mines were closed, as the deposits were almost exhausted and

875-550: A certain Zhivko who took the ecclesiastical name of Zoticus. As the interrupted mining was apparently not continued after the uprising and the international trade links had been severed, the locals switched to cattle breeding, agriculture, fur trade and later carpet weaving as their main occupation. The western traveller Ami Boué , who visited the town in 1836–1838, reported that "mainly young girls, under shelters or in corridors, engage in carpet weaving . They earn only five francs

1000-504: A community cultural centre ( chitalishte ) with branches in eight of the villages in the municipality. The chitalishte has a youth dancing group, a folk music group, a theatrical group, a folk ritual and customs reproduction group and other similar groups. The nine libraries of the Chiprovtsi chitalishte and its branches house 65,975 volumes of books. Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period

1125-571: A golden age during the 14th century. In particular the reigns of the Angevin kings Charles Robert (1308–42) and his son Louis the Great (1342–82) were marked by success. The country grew wealthy as the main European supplier of gold and silver. Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and from Poland to Northern Greece. He had the greatest military potential of

1250-522: A great victory against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region, however, and its immediate beneficiary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which extended its influence eastwards. Under the reign of Ivan the Great (1462–1505), Moscow became a major regional power, and the annexation of the vast Republic of Novgorod in 1478 laid

1375-446: A group of Franciscans established a Catholic mission in the town. In 1601, Solinat was appointed bishop of Sofia with his seat in Chiprovtsi by Pope Clement VIII . He chose to reside in Chiprovtsi because Sofia's Catholic population was limited to a handful of Ragusan merchant families. Chiprovtsi's development reached its apogee in the 17th century, when it became a bustling cultural, religious and merchant centre of that part of

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1500-700: A military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French, and the initiative was carried further by King Louis XI . Meanwhile, Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy , met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions, particularly from the Swiss Confederation formed in 1291. When Charles was killed in the Burgundian Wars at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy

1625-485: A month and the payment was even lower before". By 1868, the annual production of carpets in Chiprovtsi had surpassed 14,000 square metres. Following the Russo-Turkish War in 1877–1878, Chiprovtsi, along with all of northern Bulgaria and the region around Sofia, became part of the newly liberated Principality of Bulgaria , the predecessor of modern Bulgaria. In 1896, almost 1,400 women from Chiprovtsi and

1750-801: A right tributary of the Danube , originates from the Chiprovtsi Mountain and flows northeast through the Danubian Plain to join the Danube in Vratsa Province . Just northeast of the town is another mountain, Shiroka Planina, a branch of the Fore-Balkan Mountains. The region is rich in metal and mineral deposits. On 31 July 2005, Chiprovtsi's population was 2,375 people — 1,167 men and 1,208 women. By June 2008,

1875-697: A separate autonomous entity directly subordinate to the Pope, the Bulgarian Custody . Solinat was succeeded by a Bulgarian bishop, Iliya Marinov of Chiprovtsi, who was in turn followed by another local, Petar Bogdan Bakshev, who travelled to Wallachia , Warsaw , Vienna , Rome and Ancona looking for funds and support for the community. In the 1640s, the Bulgarian Custody gave way to the Diocese of Marcianopolis presided by Petar Parchevich and

2000-530: A so-called "depression of the Renaissance". In spite of convincing arguments for the case, the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made. Mid%C5%BEor Midžor ( Serbian Cyrillic : Миџор , pronounced [mîdʒɔr] ) or Midzhur ( Bulgarian : Миджур , pronounced [miˈd͡ʒur] ) is a peak in the Balkan Mountains , situated on

2125-599: Is a marked track which passes through the Chuprene biosphere reserve and leads to the main summit on a saddle between the peaks Replyanska Tsarkva (1,969 m) and Ostra Chuka (1967 m). To the south east through the peaks Ostra Chuka and Oba (2,033 m) the track reaches a saddle from where the Lom River and the Timok flow out at border stone 336. From there, the peak can be climbed from the north-western slope. At 7 km from

2250-499: Is divided into two branches, the common and specialized administration. The common administration is further divided into the "Information Services" and "Financial-economical Activities and Handling of Property" departments; the specialized administration includes the "Planning and Distribution of the Budget" and "Territorial and Village Planning and Building" departments. The municipality has no separate court or prosecutor 's office and

2375-650: Is entirely manual and all used materials are natural; the primary material is wool , coloured using plant or mineral dyes . The local carpets have been prized at exhibitions in London , Paris , Liège and Brussels . The kilim making of Chiprovtsi was inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list of UNESCO in 2014. The municipality has also invested in the development of tourism and many private houses have been turned into small family hotels or guesthouses. In 2004, 65 people were engaged in

2500-612: Is instead serviced by the Montana provincial court and office. The local police station is subordinate to the one in Montana. There is a Municipal Land Commission, part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry , and a Municipal Social Service. The Municipal Land Commission takes care of land and forest distribution and the Municipal Social Service oversees financial aid and supports the disabled . The town has

2625-514: Is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography. The term "Renaissance" is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual, cultural, or artistic developments but not as the defining feature of an entire European historical epoch. The period from the early 14th century up until – and sometimes including – the 16th century is rather seen as characterized by other trends: demographic and economic decline followed by recovery,

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2750-426: Is the only one remaining in the municipality of formerly 15. The carpet ( kilim ) industry remains dominant in the town. Carpets have been crafted according to traditional designs, but in recent years it is up to the customers to decide the pattern of the carpet they have ordered. The production of a single 3 by 4 m (9.8 by 13.1 ft) carpet takes about 50 days; primarily women engage in carpet weaving. Work

2875-716: The Atlantic Ocean to America . As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders , the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance. At the same time, English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth, resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries. In the Baltic and North Sea , the Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in

3000-554: The Balkans fell under the dominance of the Ottoman Empire . Meanwhile, the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict. The situation gradually led to the consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state . The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies – most notably

3125-796: The Balkans . Named the "flower of Bulgaria" in that period, some have deemed the town's prosperity the Balkans' only participation in the Renaissance , along with that of Dalmatia. Many members of the local élite were educated in Rome, particularly at the Collegio Clementino and the Sapienza University . Gradually, the foreign Franciscans were replaced by locals and in the 1620s the Bulgarian Catholics formed

3250-705: The Black Death . Meanwhile, the Norse colony in Greenland died out, probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century. These conditions might have been the effect of the Little Ice Age . The death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286 threw the country into a succession crisis , and the English king, Edward I , was brought in to arbitrate. Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland, leading to

3375-697: The Czechs , but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened. Martin Luther , a German monk, started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X 's renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica in 1514. Luther

3500-589: The Diocese of Nicopoli headed by Filip Stanislavov and represented in Chiprovtsi by Franchesko Soymirovich. The town and the surrounding areas were not entirely Catholic: a significant part of the population was Orthodox; the Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery still exists today. The evolution of Chiprovtsi from a mining town to a trade hub owes much to the settlement of merchants from the Republic of Ragusa (today Dubrovnik , Croatia ) and

3625-679: The English aristocracy, such as John of Gaunt , the movement was not allowed to survive. Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested, his supporters, the Lollards , were eventually suppressed in England. The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland. The teachings of the Czech priest Jan Hus were based on those of John Wycliffe, yet his followers,

3750-668: The English Parliament . The growth of secular authority was further aided by the decline of the papacy with the Western Schism and the coming of the Protestant Reformation . After the failed union of Sweden and Norway of 1319–1365, the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union was instituted in 1397. The Swedes were reluctant members of the Danish -dominated union from the start. In an attempt to subdue

3875-695: The Hiberno-Norman lords in Ireland were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society, and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship. The French House of Valois , which followed the House of Capet in 1328, was at its outset marginalized in its own country, first by the English invading forces of the Hundred Years' War and later by the powerful Duchy of Burgundy . The emergence of Joan of Arc as

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4000-617: The House of Habsburg in 1438, where it remained until its dissolution in 1806. Yet in spite of the extensive territories held by the Habsburgs , the Empire itself remained fragmented, and much real power and influence lay with the individual principalities. In addition, financial institutions, such as the Hanseatic League and the Fugger family, held great power, on both economic and political levels. The Kingdom of Hungary experienced

4125-703: The Hussites , were to have a much greater political impact than the Lollards. Hus gained a great following in Bohemia , and in 1414, he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause. When he was burned as a heretic in 1415, it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands. The subsequent Hussite Wars fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for

4250-621: The Jews , who were often blamed for the calamities. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg . States were also guilty of discrimination against the Jews. Monarchs gave in to the demands of the people, and the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497. While

4375-572: The Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades , but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks , when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the West, particularly Italy. Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated the dissemination of

4500-653: The Triballi or a related group of Thracians. The Romans conquered what is today the Bulgarian northwest after 29 BC and consolidated their authority in the region under Emperor Trajan (98–117). There are remains of Roman fortifications around Chiprovtsi, such as the Latin Fortress ruins in the Kula area, where coins dating to the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) and Commodus (180–192) have been unearthed, and

4625-484: The Wars of Scottish Independence . The English were eventually defeated, and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the Stewarts . From 1337, England's attention was largely directed towards France in the Hundred Years' War . Henry V's victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms, but his son Henry VI soon squandered all previous gains. The loss of France led to discontent at home. Soon after

4750-425: The ancient age (via classical antiquity ) and the modern age . Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era. The term "late Middle Ages" refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages , along with the early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. Leonardo Bruni

4875-403: The bill of exchange and other forms of credit that circumvented the canonical laws for gentiles against usury and eliminated the dangers of carrying bullion ; and new forms of accounting , in particular double-entry bookkeeping , which allowed for better oversight and accuracy. With the financial expansion, trading rights became more jealously guarded by the commercial elite. Towns saw

5000-453: The condottieri of the Italian city-states. All over Europe, Swiss mercenaries were in particularly high demand. At the same time, the period also saw the emergence of the first permanent armies. It was in Valois France, under the heavy demands of the Hundred Years' War, that the armed forces gradually assumed a permanent nature. Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for

5125-413: The "Saxon" neighbourhood in the 17th century, and Roman Catholicism as the dominant religion in the town. In the second half of the 14th century, a certain number of Bosnian Croats and Ragusan merchants arrived in Chiprovtsi and its surroundings, accompanied by some Franciscan clerics from Catholic Franciscan province of Silver Bosnia . According to the research of Croatian historian Vitomir Belaj,

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5250-491: The 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance , with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit. The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy, where, in the words of Jacob Burckhardt , "Man became a spiritual individual and recognized himself as such." This proposition was later challenged, and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement. As economic and demographic methods were applied to

5375-422: The 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a process took place – primarily in Italy but partly also in the Empire – that historians have termed a "commercial revolution". Among the innovations of the period were new forms of partnership and the issuing of insurance , both of which contributed to reducing the risk of commercial ventures;

5500-480: The 14th century with his enormous armies (often over 100,000 men). Meanwhile, Poland 's attention was turned eastwards, as the Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region. The union, and the conversion of Lithuania, also marked the end of paganism in Europe. Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382. Instead, he named as his heir the young prince Sigismund of Luxemburg . The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim, and

5625-421: The 1630s, the eminent writers and translators from Chiprovtsi, most notably Petar Bogdan Bakshev and Petar Parchevich , formed the so-called "Chiprovtsi Literary School", issuing books about the history of Bulgaria, as well as on religious topics. As prosperous as the region was, it was not unharmed by the constant Ottoman–Habsburg wars and was often the target of Turkish, Tatar and Hungarian rebel raids. By

5750-485: The 1630s, the idea of an organized anti-Ottoman revolt had reached the town of Chiprovtsi. In his 1650 account to the senate of the Republic of Venice Petar Parchevich described the long preparations for an armed struggle and the support-seeking visits of his fellow townsmen to the kings of Poland and Austria . Since then, the inhabitants of Chiprovtsi waited for the suitable moment when they would be able to instigate an effective uprising and continued to co-operate with

5875-426: The Balkans in the 14th–15th centuries, they valued the Chiprovtsi mines for their military and civil needs and sought to renew the ore extraction that had been interrupted by warfare. Renewed exploitation of the local deposits is thought to have commenced by the late 15th century; a note of 1479 mentions that the mines "in Bosnia , Herzegovina and other places " had been rented. The town of Chiprovtsi and several of

6000-409: The Big Ruins south of the town. The gold , silver , lead , copper and iron mines brought sizable revenue to the Romans, who took good care to protect these from barbarian attacks. With the arrival of the Seven Slavic tribes and the Bulgars in the 6th–7th century and the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680 in the former lands of the Eastern Roman Empire ( Byzantine Empire ),

6125-443: The Bulgarian carpet industry. Other traditional industries have been stock breeding , agriculture and fur trade . Today, Chiprovtsi municipality experiences a declining population and above-average unemployment . However, the development of alternative tourism help to sustain the economy. According to linguist Ivan Duridanov, Chiprovtsi's original name was Kipurovets (Кипуровец). The current form gradually emerged through

6250-484: The Bulgarian northwest and each is dedicated to a saint : they serve both demarcating and religious purposes. Most of the crosses are not dated, with the notable exceptions of Saint Demetrius —1755, Saints Peter and Paul —1781 and Holy Mother of God —1874. A notable cultural trait of Chiprovtsi shared with much of the region is the veneration of a family patron saint , named svetets ("saint") and akin to Serbian slava . The practice exists since time immemorial and

6375-433: The Catholic Church of Saint Mary had been built around 1487, but it was not until the years after the 1520s that Chiprovtsi attracted more colonists and turned into one of the Ottoman Empire's leading mining centres. By 1528, Chiprovtsi had a mint and was manufacturing silver coins. In 1585, the miners were forced to work night and day and had to pay increased taxes, leading to protests and the danger that they may migrate. By

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6500-407: The Catholic Franciscans had arrived from medieval Bosnia in western Bulgaria at the time of Bosnian vicar Bartul Alvernski ("Bartholomew of Alverno"), who himself originated from Italy , in 1366. Among the newcoming settlers there were some noblemen as well. According to Belaj, these included members of the Parchevich family, the ancestral house of the Peyachevich family . As the Ottomans subjugated

6625-404: The Chiprovtsi merchants would only visit Vidin, Pirot , Sofia and Vratsa. Later, however, they appeared at the markets in Istanbul , Thessaloniki , Bucharest , Odessa , Braşov , Sibiu , Belgrade , Buda and Pest , with a particularly strong presence in Wallachia and Transylvania, where they established permanent agencies and sizable companies in Târgoviște , Câmpulung and Râmnic during

6750-407: The English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient longbow . Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War. The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly. Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle. It

6875-435: The European population to regain similar levels of 1300. As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for the survivors, and labour was consequently more expensive. Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English 1351 Statute of Laborers , were doomed to fail. These efforts resulted in nothing more than fostering resentment among the peasantry, leading to rebellions such as

7000-399: The French Jacquerie in 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The long-term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage. The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially

7125-407: The Great Schism had done irreparable damage. The internal struggles within the Church had impaired her claim to universal rule and promoted anti-clericalism among the people and their rulers, paving the way for reform movements. Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages, the end of the unity of the Western Church (the Protestant Reformation ) was one of

7250-414: The Iberian peninsula, but there were also some in France, the Empire, and the Low Countries, as well as London in England. Through battles such as Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314), and Morgarten (1315), it became clear to the great territorial princes of Europe that the military advantage of the feudal cavalry was lost and that a well equipped infantry was preferable. Through the Welsh Wars ,

7375-683: The Jews were suffering persecution, one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the late Middle Ages was women. The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce, learning, and religion. Yet at the same time, women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution, as belief in witchcraft increased. The accumulation of social, environmental, and health-related problems also led to an increase in interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe. Population increase, religious intolerance, famine, and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of medieval society. One exception to this

7500-422: The League in 1688 their European allies would reach Sofia and end the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. Thus, they revolted in the spring of 1688. The reach of the uprising cannot be exactly determined, but scholars such as S. Damyanov believe it included Chiprovtsi and the neighbouring Kopilovtsi, Klisura and Zhelezna and thousands of Bulgarians from the entire Bulgarian northwest. Although the leaders were mostly Catholics,

7625-417: The Middle Ages (1919). To Huizinga, whose research focused on France and the Low Countries rather than Italy, despair and decline were the main themes, not rebirth. Modern historiography on the period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis. It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps, and the term "late Middle Ages"

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7750-471: The Ottomans stormed Chiprovtsi and retook it from the rebels, capturing over 2,000 people. About 3,000 natives of the area, guarded by the remaining insurrectionary units, managed to flee beyond the Danube. Most of those settled in the Habsburg-ruled realms, founding a major Bulgarian colony in the Banat known as the " Banat Bulgarians ", as well as colonies in Deva and Alvinc ( Vinţu de Jos ) in Transylvania and Szentendre in modern Hungary . The town itself

7875-535: The Serbian king Stefan Dušan had been proclaimed emperor. Yet Serbian dominance was short-lived; the Serbian army led by the Lazar Hrebeljanovic was defeated by the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where most of the Serbian nobility was killed and the south of the country came under Ottoman occupation , as much of southern Bulgaria had become Ottoman territory in the Battle of Maritsa 1371. Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396, Serbia fell in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, and Albania

8000-406: The Sicilian Vespers had by the early 14th century divided southern Italy into an Aragon Kingdom of Sicily and an Anjou Kingdom of Naples . In 1442, the two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control. The 1469 marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the 1479 death of John II of Aragon led to the creation of modern-day Spain . In 1492, Granada

8125-430: The Spanish kingdoms supported the Avignon Papacy, France's enemy England stood behind the pope in Rome, together with Portugal, Scandinavia, and most of the German princes. At the Council of Constance (1414–1418), the Papacy was once more united in Rome. Even though the unity of the Western Church was to last for another hundred years, and though the Papacy was to experience greater material prosperity than ever before,

8250-439: The Swedes, King Christian II of Denmark had large numbers of the Swedish aristocracy killed in the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. Yet this measure only led to further hostilities, and Sweden broke away for good in 1523. Norway, on the other hand, became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814. Iceland benefited from its relative isolation and was the last Scandinavian country to be struck by

8375-460: The area's pre-Ottoman Bulgarian administrative division may have also been preserved, as it is referred to under the Slavic name voivodeship in some documents. By the 1520s, Chiprovtsi was still a minor centre of mining activity compared to other places in the empire. In that period, it brought a revenue of 47,553 akçe , as compared to Kratovo 's 100,000 and Srebrenica 's 477,000. The Catholic miners are known to have arrived by that time, as

8500-409: The border between Bulgaria and Serbia . At 2,169 metres (7,116 ft), it is the highest peak of the Western Balkan Mountains , as well as the highest in Serbia . In Bulgaria, the peak is known as Midzhur. Since the early 1990s, it has been accessible to tourists from both sides of the border; previously, access was forbidden due to the peak being in the border area. Due to those restrictions,

8625-411: The bulk of the insurgents were Orthodox. It is known that the rebellion was led by over 200 voivodes of separate detachments. The insurgents were aided by six regiments of regular Habsburg army and artillery under General Heißler and managed to briefly capture the town of Kutlovitsa (modern Montana), but were ultimately crushed by the Ottomans and their Hungarian ally Imre Thököly . On 18–19 October,

8750-434: The death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent. By around 1420, the accumulated effect of recurring plagues and famines had reduced the population of Europe to perhaps no more than a third of what it was a century earlier. The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts; this was particularly the case in France during the Hundred Years' War . It took 150 years for

8875-414: The discovery of the Americas in 1492. Around 1300–1350, the Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age . The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises, the first of which is known as the Great Famine of 1315–1317 . The demographic consequences of this famine , however, were not as severe as the plagues that occurred later in the century, particularly the Black Death . Estimates of

9000-547: The distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period. The Catholic Church had long fought against heretic movements, but during the late Middle Ages, it started to experience demands for reform from within. The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England. Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against transubstantiation , celibacy , and indulgences . In spite of influential supporters among

9125-592: The domestic life from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and the 17th-century heyday until today, as well as works of the Chiprovtsi goldsmithing and carpet industry. The town has an Eastern Orthodox church dedicated to the Ascension of Jesus ; the remains of the old Roman Catholic church of Saint Mary have also been preserved. The Chiprovtsi Monastery is situated outside the town; there are ruins of several other Orthodox churches and another monastery. The town has

9250-520: The early 16th century, when the King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Ottoman Empire . Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded, ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era. The state of Kievan Rus' fell during the 13th century in the Mongol invasion . The Grand Duchy of Moscow rose in power thereafter, winning

9375-471: The economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe . However, the division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result, there was developmental continuity between

9500-595: The end of Western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the nation-state , and the expansion of European influence onto the rest of the world. The limits of Christian Europe were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries. While the Grand Duchy of Moscow was beginning to repel the Mongols , and the Iberian kingdoms completed the Reconquista of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards,

9625-561: The end of the war in 1453, the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses (c. 1455–1485) began, involving the rival dynasties of the House of Lancaster and House of York . The war ended in the accession of Henry VII of the House of Tudor , who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong, centralized monarchy. While England's attention was thus directed elsewhere,

9750-545: The entire region was soon incorporated into the Bulgarian realm. After a period of renewed Byzantine rule in 1018–1185, it was part of the Second Bulgarian Empire until its conquest by the Ottomans in the late 14th or early 15th century. The presence of the German ore miners, known locally as sasi (саси, Saxons ), cannot be accurately dated. Some researchers estimate their arrival in Chiprovtsi to be in

9875-476: The existence of the Srebril or Srebrana ("Silversmiths'"), Kyurkchiyska ("Furriers'"), Pazarska ("Merchants'"), Tabashka ("Leatherworkers'"), Partsal and Trap neighbourhoods. The existence of a Saksonska ( Regio Saxonium , " Saxon ") neighbourhood was also attested until the 17th century. Another actively used pair of toponyms is Dolni kray ("Lower Part") and Gorni kray ("Upper Part"), referring to

10000-466: The family saint is thought to have been chosen by the taking of a random candle by an unaware person. The svetets is associated to the family house: when a daughter-in-law comes to live there, she accepts the family saint of the home, and when a family member or a foreign settler moves out or builds a new house, they adopt a new svetets . Chiprovtsi has a museum of history that occupies two old-style buildings and features four exhibitions. These present

10125-631: The foundations for a Russian national state. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian princes started to see themselves as the heirs of the Byzantine Empire . They eventually took on the imperial title of Tzar , and Moscow was described as the Third Rome . The Byzantine Empire had for a long time dominated the eastern Mediterranean in politics and culture. By the 14th century, however, it had almost entirely collapsed into

10250-719: The growing power of guilds , while on a national level, special companies would be granted monopolies on particular trades, like the English wool Staple . The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth. Families like the Fuggers in Germany, the Medicis in Italy, and the de la Poles in England and individuals like Jacques Cœur in France would help finance the wars of kings, achieving great political influence in

10375-475: The leaders of the European realms. On 12 September 1683, the Ottomans were routed by the forces of Europe at the Battle of Vienna . In early 1684, Austria, Poland and Venice concluded an anti-Ottoman pact; they were joined by Russia in 1686 to form the Holy League . It was clear at that time that the decisive moment was near. The leaders of Chiprovtsi assessed that after the imminent capture of Belgrade by

10500-697: The market conditions of fluorit also became unfavorable. At this point, the company employed 116 people, who were let go. The local Bulgarians traditionally belong to the ethnographic group of the Torlaks and speak a transitional Bulgarian dialect , the Belogradchik dialect . Most of the population are adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church . The municipality has 30 registered cultural monuments and 12 consecrated stone crosses, of which eight in Chiprovtsi. Such crosses are typical for

10625-537: The mid-14th century, the time of the last Bulgarian emperors , while others claim they reached the town during the early Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. Their exact number and place of origin are also vague, although the German miners were widely recruited as specialists in medieval Wallachia , Transylvania and Serbia . In Chiprovtsi, they are thought to have arrived as a single group of about 50–60 people with their families. They were probably recruited through special contracts and likely received some privileges compared to

10750-417: The native Bulgarian population. In Chiprovtsi's mines, they served as technicians and overseers, contributing to the technological progress of mining in the region. They were, however, gradually assimilated by the local Bulgarians by the mid-15th century, as indicated by German names with Slavic suffixes in the population registers. The Germans left behind the name of one of the neighbourhoods, still known as

10875-533: The nature around the peak has been preserved untouched. On the Bulgarian side, the peak is reachable from the villages of Chuprene and Gorni Lom in Vidin Province . From Chuprene there are two possibilities for climbing. There is a 17 km dirt road following the river Chuprenska to the Gorski Ray refuge (1,450 m) or a 9 km foot track following the river Manastirska. From the refuge there

11000-429: The neighbouring Serbia. It is 35 kilometres (22 mi) long and features several peaks around 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), including Midzhur (2,168 m or 7,113 ft), Martinova Chuka (2,011 m or 6,598 ft), Golyama Chuka (1,967 m or 6,453 ft), Kopren (1,964 m or 6,444 ft), Tri Chuki (1,938 m or 6,358 ft) and Vrazha Glava (1,936 m or 6,352 ft). The Ogosta River,

11125-480: The numerous copper deposits and mines in the region in Ancient Roman times. The name was first mentioned in a western source, namely a Latin document of 1565, as Chiprovatz . Similar forms such as Chipurovatz , Chiprouvatz , Chiprovotzii , Chiprovtzi , Kiprovazo , Chiprovatzium , Kiprovetz and Kiprovtzi have been used throughout the 16th–17th centuries. The attested Serbo-Croatian pronunciation of

11250-583: The population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare . France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt , as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War . To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church

11375-736: The printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the Reformation . Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama 's voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened

11500-441: The process. Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in absolute terms, there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population. While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence, more recent studies have suggested that there might have been

11625-696: The quality of the local metalworking, as well as the lack of permanent Ottoman presence and the privileges enjoyed by the population. By the mid-17th century, mining was in decline, as the silver deposits had been all but exhausted (in 1666 there remained only 16 iron smelteries), forcing the population to seek a more profitable occupation. Since 1659, the Ragusan merchants from Provadiya altered their traditional route to Dubrovnik through Sofia in order to visit Chiprovtsi. The local residents produced and traded with leather , carpets, fabrics, clothes, remarkable gold and silver jewellery, metal tools, cattle, etc. Initially,

11750-758: The reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation, or Counter-Reformation . Europe became split into northern Protestant and southern Catholic parts, resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. The increasingly dominant position of the Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean presented an impediment to trade for the Christian nations of the west, who in turn started looking for alternatives. Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes – south of Africa to India , as well as across

11875-413: The region was repopulated by Orthodox Bulgarians, beginning in the 1720s. In 1737–1738, the sultan amnestied the rebels and permitted the return of the insurgents' property in 1741, though none of the former residents is known to have returned. In the 1720s–1730s, Chiprovtsi had only 12 inhabited houses; by the 1750s, those had reached 150. The Orthodox Chiprovtsi Monastery had been reestablished in 1703 by

12000-565: The region were engaged in carpet weaving. In 1920, the locals founded the Manual Labour carpet-weaving cooperative society, the first of its kind in the country. In the 1950s, ore output was renewed in the region, briefly revitalizing Chiprovtsi through the influx of young and highly educated people. On 12 September 1968, Chiprovtsi was officially proclaimed a town by the National Assembly of Bulgaria . In Socialist times ,

12125-422: The region were inhabited exclusively by Christians and they had the privilege to perform their rituals in public without discrimination. The only Turkish person in the town was the sultan's representative and no Turks were allowed to settle there, as the local Bulgarians enjoyed self-government to a certain degree and were administered by an elected council of eminent Bulgarian residents ( knezove ). A fragment of

12250-596: The result was an internal war. Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrád. Both palaces were rebuilt and improved, and were considered the richest of the time in Europe. Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary, but he was kept busy fighting the Hussites and the Ottoman Empire , which

12375-582: The return of the Pope to Rome in 1378, the Papal State developed into a major secular power, culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of Alexander VI . Florence grew to prominence amongst the Italian city-states through financial business, and the dominant Medici family became important promoters of the Renaissance through their patronage of the arts. Other city-states in northern Italy also expanded their territories and consolidated their power, primarily Milan , Venice , and Genoa . The War of

12500-569: The river near the peak and four more are under construction. Chuprene biosphere reserve, which is under the protection of UNESCO , is situated to the west of the peak. It is one of the last sanctuaries in Bulgaria where the Capercaillie nests. In Serbia the peak is known as Midžor. The extreme peak of the western mountain is north of the village of Topli Dol , located in the centre of Serbian Stara Planina , between Tri Čuke (1936 m) on

12625-421: The rule of Matei Basarab (1632–1654). The international trade broadened the outlook of the locals and introduced the ideas of the age and the European culture of the time to the region. A Catholic monastery was built during the time of Peter Solinat and developed as an educational centre through its school; it was referred to as one of the most prestigious schools in the Bulgarian lands in that period. The school

12750-427: The study of history, the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne continued the subdivision of Early , High , and late Middle Ages in the years around World War I . Yet it was his Dutch colleague, Johan Huizinga , who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the late Middle Ages, with his book The Autumn of

12875-496: The suffix /at͡s/ as opposed to standard Bulgarian /ɛt͡s/ is explained with the influence of the so-called " Illyrian language", a Dalmatian form of Croatian language used by the Franciscan clerics in the town in the 17th century. The town has been conventionally divided into several neighbourhoods ( ma(h)ali ); most are named according to the profession and social status of their residents. In 1888, D. Marinov recorded

13000-472: The surrounding villages were administratively organized as a hass , or a private possession of the sultan's royal family and later of the sultan's mother. The special status of the area meant that the local Christians would not be subject to the usual discriminatory laws, but would have to pay an annual tribute of silver to the sultan. Later on, the estate was organized as a waqf , a land devoted for Muslim religious or charitable purposes. Chiprovtsi and

13125-490: The time, Chiprovtsi was already providing a revenue of 1,400,000 akçe , making it one of the empire's prime mining and metalworking regions. In the mid-16th century, Chiprovtsi began to attract the attention of Catholic officials from Rome . In 1565, the archbishop of Antivari (today Bar , Montenegro ) Ambrosius arrived in the town as an apostolic visitor . In 1592–1595, the Bosnian Croat cleric Peter Solinat and

13250-435: The tourism industry; in the same year, the municipality was visited by 2,350 tourists, of whom were 254 foreigners. In terms of economic indicators, the municipality ranks around the high average: it is 113th of 264 municipalities in Bulgaria by GDP per capita and 67th by Human Development Index . In September 2008, it was reported that one of the few fluorite deposits in Europe located near Chiprovtsi would be developed by

13375-418: The town had a factory that produced AK-47 magazines and employed about 400 people. After the democratic changes in 1989 , mining was discontinued again due to a lack of funds, the factory was closed and the carpet industry has been in decline as it had lost its firm foreign markets. As a result, the town and the municipality have been experiencing a demographic crisis. The municipal government consists of

13500-548: The town neighbourhoods closer to the river or the mountain respectively. Chiprovtsi Point and Chiprovtsi Islets in Rugged Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica are named after Chiprovtsi. Chiprovtsi is situated in a small valley at the foot of the Chiprovtsi Mountain, a high northern branch of the western Balkan Mountains. The Chiprovtsi Mountain forms the border between Bulgaria and

13625-644: The town's population had declined to 2,122. It is known that the area around Chiprovtsi has been inhabited since the time of the Thracians and later the Roman Empire , when the local metal deposits were exploited. According to historian V. Velkov, the valley of the Ogosta was inhabited by Thracians since the early 1st millennium BC. According to ancient accounts, the area was populated by the Thracian tribe of

13750-456: The village of Gorni Lom is located the Gorni Lom refuge (840 m). There is also another refuge upstream called Mudzhur. There are steep tracks from there leading to the saddle between Oba and the peak at border stone 336 from where both tracks from the two villages merge. The source of the Lom River is at the foot of the peak. A cascade of small hydroelectric power plants is in operation on

13875-460: The warrior class. This newfound ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and it gradually became almost entirely detached from its military origin. The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new ( secular ) type of chivalric orders ; the first of these was the Order of St. George , founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325, while the best known

14000-660: Was North-Eastern Europe, whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade. Up until the mid-14th century, Europe had experienced steadily increasing urbanization . Cities were also decimated by the Black Death, but the role of urban areas as centres of learning, commerce, and government ensured continued growth. By 1500, Venice, Milan, Naples, Paris, and Constantinople each probably had more than 100,000 inhabitants. Twenty-two other cities were larger than 40,000; most of these were in Italy and

14125-512: Was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time, the Black Army of Hungary , which he used to conquer Moravia and Austria and to fight the Ottoman Empire . After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared. However, the glory of the Kingdom ended in

14250-587: Was captured from the Moors , thereby completing the Reconquista . Portugal had during the 15th century – particularly under Henry the Navigator  – gradually explored the coast of Africa , and in 1498, Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India . The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of Christopher Columbus to find a western sea route to India, leading to

14375-638: Was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521. When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V . Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise , he was then able to translate the Bible into German . To many secular rulers, the Protestant Reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence. The Catholic Church met the challenges of

14500-406: Was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg . Belgrade , a Hungarian domain at the time, was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule, in the siege of Belgrade of 1521. By the end of the medieval period, the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by, or became vassal to, the Ottomans. Avignon was the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1376. With

14625-533: Was partially foreign-funded and provided education in grammar , arithmetic , logic and philosophy to 75–80 students. The teachers were often Bulgarian graduates of the Collegio Clementino in Rome and the languages of education were Latin, Bulgarian and "Illyrian", a Croatian form written usually in the Latin alphabet but sometimes in Cyrillic . The school also had a library, one of the first in Bulgaria. Since

14750-558: Was plundered, burned down and deserted and its links to the West were largely severed. For several decades after the uprising, Chiprovtsi and the region remained desolate. In 1699, the Ottomans attempted to settle 1,238 anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebels in those lands and provided them with 5-year tax exemptions , but this proved unsuccessful as in 1717 the same Hungarians were moved to the Rousse barracks and sent to fight at Niš . Ultimately,

14875-730: Was probably the English Order of the Garter , founded by Edward III in 1348. The French crown's increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309. When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the Western Schism (1378–1417). The Schism divided Europe along political lines; while France, her ally Scotland, and

15000-675: Was reclaimed by France. At the same time, the County of Burgundy and the wealthy Burgundian Netherlands came into the Holy Roman Empire under Habsburg control, setting up conflict for centuries to come. Bohemia prospered in the 14th century, and the Golden Bull of 1356 made the king of Bohemia first among the imperial electors , but the Hussite revolution threw the country into crisis. The Holy Roman Empire passed to

15125-680: Was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism . Collectively, those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages . Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before

15250-530: Was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance ). Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues , including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death , reduced

15375-408: Was the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising of 1688. After the suppression of the uprising, some of the town's population fled to Habsburg -ruled lands; those unable to flee were killed or enslaved by the Ottomans. Deserted for about 30 years, the town was repopulated by Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians , beginning in the 1720s. It was following this new settlement that Chiprovtsi became a major centre of

15500-690: Was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442). Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453). Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1683). For 18th-century historians studying

15625-446: Was through the use of cannons as siege weapons that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of fortifications . Changes also took place within the recruitment and composition of armies. The use of the national or feudal levy was gradually replaced by paid troops of domestic retinues or foreign mercenaries . The practice was associated with Edward III of England and

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