THE TOWN OF SOPOT HISTORY

Situated under the southern slopes of the Stara Planina Mountains, between the Manastirska and the Leevitsa rivers, the lovely, mountainous town of Sopot boasts interesting and rich history. The ruins of an old Bulgarian fortress from XIII-XIV centuries – Anevsko Kale, tell the story of the town. In the Turkish documents from the time of the Bulgarian occupation by the Turks, Sopot is referred to as Akche Klise – White Church.
Sopot was founded at the beginning of XIV century. Its name originates from the Old-Bulgarian word Sopoh (a spring whose waters go through a wooden or metal tube). Woolen braids, coarse woolen cloth, fur, silk, carpets, glass, rose oil, goldsmith’s jewellery and others were produced here as well as in the other towns of the region. Sopot was famous as an industrial, trade and cultural centre in the Turkish Empire. It was attacked and robbed several times, and during the War of Liberation, in July 1877, the town was burnt down. Workshops for weaving special woolen decorations (braids), making and dying calico, and rose oil extraction were engulfed in flames; as a result woolen braids, calico and rose oil production disappeared. A great number of the population was slaughtered, and another one fled the town.
Sopot is connected with the haidouk (rebel) feat of the rebel leaders Dobril and Kara Ivan, with Vassil Levski and Todor Kableshkov’s deed, with the noble figures of participants in both Bulgarian legions, in Hadji Dimitar, Stefan Karadja and Hristo Botev’s bands, in volunteer’s battalions during the War of Liberation.
In the dark years of slavery, the town had a reputation for its schools: the small schools in the girls’ convent and the “St. Spas” monastery, the mutual, the class, and the girls’ schools.
The town is the birth-place of the Patriarch of the Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov and during the years 1950-1965 it was renamed Vazovgrad.
The Ivan Vazov house – museum in Sopot provides the atmosphere of the Revival period thanks to its own unique local colour.
The places in Sopot connected with Vazov’s creative work and the historical past are sacred for every Bulgarian heart. The memory of chorbadji (one of the wealthiest classes of Bulgarian townsmen) Marko’s swarm of children hovers under the box-shrubs and under the shade of the winding trellis vines in Vazov’s home. In the girls’ convent, the paces of the blue-eyed Apostle Vassil Levski, who used to find a reliable shelter there, still echo. The 350-year-old vine of the monastery was a silent witness to that great period and to the burning of the town in 1887.
In the XV century on the place of the small church “Presentation of the Blessed Virgin” there was a chapel. The monastery was founded in the ХVІІ century. In the south cell on the second floor there was an elementary school in which the prominent teacher of the Bulgarian National Revival - Nedelia Petkova studied. Nun Hristina’s cell and the entry to the hiding place in which that patriotic Bulgarian woman hid Levski in 1869-1872 during his revolutionary activity were on the first floor. There Levski received and from there sent his correspondence. In 1877 the convent was set on fire by the Turks, and nun Hristina – brutally murdered. Her tomb is situated by the southern wall of the church.
The “St Peter and Pavel” church is located in the close proximity of the convent.
It was described in the novel “Under the yoke” too, burnt down in 1877 and after that rebuilt. The girls’ /Rada’s/ school was immortalized in the first Bulgarian novel “Under the yoke” by Ivan Vazov through his heroine – the teacher from the Bulgarian National Revival Rada Gospojina.
Now the Girls’ school is turned into a museum boasting an exposition dedicated to the educational process in Sopot and a classroom with recreated interior. In it there is also a permanent graphic exhibition entitled “Vazov’s Sopot“ by Binka Vazova – a niece of the national poet. In the historical “St Spas” monastery you can still hear the sound of the church bell, which was cast in Krayova by patriotic citizens of Sopot in 1873.
The white stone fountain with the carved in the marble two-headed eagle, symbol of the people’s faith in the Russian liberation mission, the frescoes in the “ The Lord’s Ascension” church with images of saints, pricked all over by Turkish bayonets - every nook and cranny here is a page of the town revolutionary past. There was a small elementary school and a choral school as well. In the monastery “St Spas” Vasil Levski was ordained as deacon Ignatii.
Near the “St Spas” monastery is the chairlift station providing the guests of Sopot with the opportunity to reach “Nezabravka” mountain hut, which shelters the numerous hikers. In the close proximity there is another mountain hut -“Dobrila”.
Sopot is a town with contemporary appearance. In the town centre you can notice the neat, new building of the town-hall, the cultural club, and the monument of Ivan Vazov.