Belene ( Bulgarian : Белене [ˈbɛlɛnɛ] ) is a town in Pleven Province , Northern Bulgaria . It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Belene Municipality . The town is situated on the right bank of the Danube river , close to the town of Svishtov .
31-530: Belene is located in Pleven Province - 60 km northeast of the regional centre of Pleven and near the town of Svishtov - 26 km. Other nearby towns are Nikopol - 37 km west of Belene and Levski to the south - 46 km. Belene Municipality is located in the northern central part of the Danube Plain, on the northern state border of Bulgaria with Romania . The territory of
62-772: A martyr for the faith and beatified on 15 March 1998 in St. Peter's Basilica by Pope John Paul II In the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Sanctuary with a piece of the relics of Monsignor Bosilkov - a place of worship for believing Christians. Belene was proclaimed a town in 1964, which is celebrated every year in the first week of September with a market and cultural events. Although about 40% of construction worked and 80% of equipment deliveries for
93-513: Is 60,207 Bulgarians, 504 Turks and 367 Roma among others. Internationally known as a centre of humour and satire , Gabrovo has two theatres, the Racho Stoyanov Drama Theatre and the puppet theatre, a House of Humour and Satire 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
124-644: 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 even nowadays there is a street named "Gabroveni". Shortly before and after the Liberation of Bulgaria 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
155-590: 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, called municipalities, that embrace a territory of 4,653.32 km (1,796.66 sq mi) with a population, as of February 2011, of 269 752 inhabitants. The province's capital is the city of Pleven . The following Bulgarian terms may be used: The province
186-521: Is also known as the longest town in Bulgaria, stretching over 25 km along the Yantra, yet reaching only 1 km (0.6 mi) in width at places. The geographic center of Bulgaria - Uzana - is located near the town. According to the most widespread legend , Gabrovo was founded by a blacksmith named Racho, close to whose fireplace a hornbeam rose, so the settlement acquired its name, from
217-607: Is also popular for its use of traditional Balkan songs, folklore choreography, and a rich display of Gabrovo humour and culture. A planetarium is in operation. Places of interest in Gabrovo include the House of Humour and Satire and Aprilov National High School . In Gabrovo Province sites include architectural reserve Bozhentsi . Hiking is widely available in the Central Balkan National Park and in
248-422: Is more than 30,000 people short of its peak, achieved in the period 1985-1991 when the number of the residents exceeded 80,000. According to Census 2011, as of February 2011 , the population of the town was 58,950 inhabitants. According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows: Total: 58,950 The ethnic composition of Gabrovo Municipality
279-496: Is part of the central Danubian Plain . It is crossed from south to north by the rivers Iskar , Vit , and Osam (in west-east order); the river valleys are separated by limestone plateaus. The Pleven province (област, oblast ) contains 11 municipalities ( Bulgarian : община , romanized : obshtina - plural: общини , obshtini ). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic ,
310-613: 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 ®. A minor planet 2206 Gabrova discovered on April 1, 1976, by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named in honor of
341-714: The Danube in Spring of 1949. The main confessions in the town are Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy , with two Roman Catholic and one Orthodox church being present. The Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1860, the Eastern Orthodox Church of St George in 1874 and the Catholic Church of Saint Anthony of Padua was constructed in 1893. Belene is the birthplace of Blessed Bishop Eugene Bosilkov (1900–1952),
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#1732772702362372-797: 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
403-550: The Ottoman invasion of the Balkans 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 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. During Ottoman rule ,
434-408: The 2011 census. According to the 2001 census, the population of the province was 312,018, of which Bulgarians constitute an overwhelming majority of 280,475. 16,931 signed as Turks (though this number very likely also includes Muslim Roma ) and 9,777 as Roma. According to the 2001 census 283,626 people specified Bulgarian as their mother tongue, 14,947 declared to speak Turkish at home, while
465-700: The Catholic faith has a beneficial effect on the development of Belene. According to Lyubomir Miletich after the pogrom of the Chiprovtsi uprising in 1688, about 2,000 people from Belene moved to Wallachia to escape the Turkish atrocities. After a while, some of them returned, but some had already adopted the Romanian language and customs. After the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation from 1877-1878 ,
496-662: The Slavic word gabar (" hornbeam ") + the Slavic suffix -ovo . The area around Gabrovo, inhabited since the Neolithic , gained economic importance after Veliko Tarnovo became capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 12th century. Craftsmanship and trade prospered due to the proximity to both the capital and the Balkan passes. Medieval Gabrovo was a small pass village of about 100 houses. After
527-553: The Turks emigrated and Bulgarians from the Gabrovo , Elena , Tryavna and Tarnovo regions settled, leaving Belene with a purely Bulgarian population. On 7 September 1964 Belene was proclaimed a city. Here was located the biggest labour camp in Bulgaria ( Belene labour camp ) after the BCP gained power in 1944. It was constructed on the island of Persin (also known as Belene Island) in
558-530: The coldest in Bulgaria but in the summer it gets very hot. Five cultural layers have been found in over 20 Thracian mounds. The first ones date from the late Neolithic , continue through the Bronze and Copper Ages and are evidence of continuous life in these places. From the 4th century BC until the beginning of the 1st century BC the site was inhabited by the Thracian tribe Getae , also called Dimenzi. It
589-648: The first unit had been completed in 1991, construction was suspended owing to a lack of financial resources. In 2002, the Government decided to resume the Belene NPP Project and in 2005, the Council of Ministers issued a decision for construction of two 1000 MW units. However, the Council of Ministers decision about the Belene NPP Project was subsequently suspended in 2012. In 2018, the Minister of Energy
620-424: The large stock exchanges were created, prompting some to label the town "The Bulgarian Manchester ". Gabrovo saw its most rapid growth in the post- World War II 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 . Currently, Gabrovo
651-632: The main town (in bold) or village, and the population of each as of December 2009. As of February 2011, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 266 144 of which 28.4% are inhabitants aged over 60 years. Total population (2011 census): 269,752 Ethnic groups (2011 census): Identified themselves 240,265 persons: A further 30,000 persons in Pleven Province did not declare their ethnic group at
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#1732772702362682-540: The municipality is 285,046 decares (285 km²), of which 12,110 decares are the “settlements” fund. For its area it is one of the small municipalities in Bulgaria. It consists of six settlements - the municipal center of Belene and five villages - Dekov , Tatari , Petokladentsi , Kulina voda and Byala voda . The number of inhabitants in the Municipality accounts to 9891. Belene has a continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfa ) The winters are one of
713-605: The native speakers of Romani were 8,861. Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census: Gabrovo Gabrovo ( Bulgarian : Габрово [ˈɡabrovo] ) is a city in central northern Bulgaria , the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province . It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains , in the valley 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 . Gabrovo
744-504: 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 . Gabrovo was officially proclaimed a town by the Ottoman authority in May 1860. In the 1870s Felix Kanitz said that Gabrovo is "a big workshop" and that it
775-633: The town. Gabrovo Knoll on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica is named after Gabrovo. Gabrovo has one of the biggest technical universities in Bulgaria , 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. Gabrovo
806-711: The varieties of the Bogomilism . On the one hand, they opposed Christianity , and on the other, they did not want to accept Islam . In order to save and mitigate the Turkish atrocities from 1605 to 1620, the Paulicians were converted to the Catholic faith by the Bosnian Catholic missionary Bishop Petar Solinat . Despite its admission into the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, the population retains its language and nationality. The adoption of
837-508: The vicinity of Belene. There is no summary information about the settlement for the period from the 5th to the 15th century. The village is mentioned in Ottoman registers from 1479/80, at that time it was a Paulician village with 49 households. Later, the Paulicians from the village converted to Catholicism . About 18 names of the settlement are known from the history and legends. The most popular are: Dimum, Pavlikjansko Belene, Beljansko, Beleni. The Paulicians who settled in it profess one of
868-549: The walls with the western gate. The available data determine its origin in 1086, when part of the Paulician population after the suppression of the Thracian uprising left the surroundings of Plovdiv and settled near the destroyed and depopulated ancient Roman fortress Dimum (Dum). In the Middle Ages the settlement was called Dunavgrad (Tunaburgos). Traces of a Slavic settlement and an earth fortification have been found in
899-498: Was assigned to again explore possibilities for construction of the Belene NPP until it was interrupted in 1990 due to the severe economic crisis that followed the fall of communism in the country. There are plans to start construction again as a replacement for reactors 3 and 4 at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant , which Bulgaria shut down as a condition for EU membership. The total capacity of the two reactors will be 2,000 MW. Belene
930-496: Was the focal point for the feature documentary film The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories by Andrey Paounov . The film features some of the town's characters, highlighting their daily plight of a nuclear plant of empty promises and a year-round mosquito epidemic. Belene is twinned with: Pleven Province 43°25′N 24°40′E / 43.417°N 24.667°E / 43.417; 24.667 Pleven Province ( Bulgarian : Област Плевен or Плевенска Област)
961-510: Was the site of the Roman fort and customs station, Dimum , from the 1st century AD in the Roman province of Moesia . In the time of the first Roman Emperor Augustus the fortress was the most north-eastern point of Moesia on the frontier with the Thracian kingdom. From the beginning of the 2nd to end of 3rd century a cavalry regiment was stationed there and which probably rebuilt the fort. The site has been partially excavated and more than 60 m of