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city in Kazanlak municipality, Stara Zagora oblast, Bulgaria
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Kazanlak (Bulgarian: Казанлък [kɐzɐnˈɫɤk] is a town in Stara Zagora Province, Bulgaria. It is located in the middle of the Kazanlak Valley, at the foot of the Balkan Mountains, which forms the eastern part of the Rose Valley. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Kazanlak Municipality. The ancient Thracian city of Seuthopolis was situated near the town.
The town is among the 15 biggest industrial centres in Bulgaria, with a population of 44,760 people as of Dec 2017.
It is the center of rose oil extraction in Bulgaria and the oil-producing rose of Kazanlak is one of the most widely recognizable national symbols.
The oldest settlement in the area of the modern-day city dates back to the Neolithic era (6th-5th millennium BCE). During the 4th-3rd centuries BCE the lands on the upper Tundzha river were within the dominion of the Thracian ruler Seuthes III and took an important place in the historical development of Thrace during the Hellenistic era. The Thracian city of Seuthopolis (Σευθόπολις) was uncovered near Kazanlak and thoroughly studied at the time of the construction of the Koprinka Reservoir. In the 4th century BCE, near the ancient Thracian capital of Seuthopolis and close to the city, a magnificent Thracian tomb was built. Consisting of a vaulted brickwork "beehive" (tholos) tomb, it contains, among other things, painted murals representing a Thracian couple at a ritual funeral feast. The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
In the Middle Ages the valley became an administrative center of the Krun region where the Bulgarian boyar Aldimir (Eltimir) ruled. After 1370 Kazanlak was under Ottoman dominion in the aftermath of the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. Its modern name is derived from the Turkish Kazanlık.
The modern city dates back to the beginning of the 15th century. It was founded as a military fortress to protect the Shipka Pass and later developed as a city of craftsmen. More than 50 handcrafts developed such as tanning, coppersmithing, goldsmithing, frieze weaving, shoemaking, cooperage and, of course, rose cultivation. The oil-producing rose, imported from central Asia via Persia, Syria and Turkey, found all the necessary conditions to thrive – proper temperature, high moisture and light, sandy, cinnamon-forest soils. Kazanlak rose oil has won gold medals at expositions in Paris, London, Philadelphia, Antwerp, Laet, and Milan. After Bulgarian independence the handcrafts declined due to the loss of the markets in the huge Ottoman Empire. The textile, aerospace and military industries were developed.
The climate is temperate, with average temperatures from 0 °C (32 °F) to 1.5 °C (34.7 °F) in January and 21 °C (70 °F) in July. The average altitude is 350 m (1,150 ft).
Spring temperatures rise comparatively early and are usually above 5 °C (41 °F) (in the first half of March) and above 10 °C (50 °F) (in the first half of April), but sometimes there are cold spring periods. Summer temperatures are moderate, and the average summer rainfall is rather high, especially at the beginning of the season. During the second half of summer and the beginning of autumn, rainfall drops. Average temperatures throughout October are above 10 °C (50 °F) and remain above 5 °C (41 °F) until mid-November. The winter is mild, with comparatively low snowfall, short-lasting snow-cover, and moderate minimum temperatures. The most precipitation falls in June, while the lowest is in February and March. A typical wind direction is from north-east.
The town of Kazanlak and the surrounding region is situated in the western part of the Kazanlak Valley. There are various soil types, mostly maroon soils (about 50%) which are very suitable for growing oleaginous (oil-producing) cultures and herbs.
The Kazanlak Valley was formed during the Quaternary Period with the rise of the Balkan and Sredna Gora mountain ranges and the submergence of the Fore-Balkan fields. The fault character of the valley is evidenced by the hot mineral springs near the villages of Ovoshtnik and Yagoda, as well as the town of Pavel Banya.
Morphologically, the Kazanlak Valley is divided into three areas. The western area is the broadest one and has a lot of hills due to the numerous alluvials formed by the rivers flowing through the Balkan Mountains. Although the average altitude is 350 m (1,150 ft), here it reaches up to 500 m (1,600 ft). The central area is narrower and lower, and the relief of the eastern area is much more complex.
Soil cover is closely related to the relief, climate, flora of the region and the economical activity of the man. The varied Bulgarian natural environment has produced about 20 soil types and subtypes.
This region is characterised mainly by cinnamon-forest soil. The spreading of the accumulative river materials along the Tundzha river and the Eninska river has formed alluvial soil types and subtypes. The draining and the deeply intended geological base together with the drought-resistant and thermophilic forest vegetation (oak, field elm, hornbeam) are the reason for the spreading of the forest soils.
The arable lands related to this soil type are inclined and that leads to the degradable effect of the plane, linear and ravine erosion. The alluvial soils are high-productive – they are represented by arable lands of I, II and III category. They cover two-thirds of the searched territory and this is an obstruction to the town growth.
The lands are planted mainly with roses and perennial plants. Low-productive and degraded lands are located only north-east of Kazanlak. Part of them are covered with meadows and pastures. This region is not rich in mineral resources of industrial importance but there are several non-metalliferous minerals of local importance. There is a clay deposit for brick manufacturing in Manastirska Niva locality two km west of Kazanlak. A greisen-pit for broken stone, paving stones, and kerbs is located 7 km (4.3 mi) east of the town in Kara Dere locality.
Sand, gravel, and felt are extracted from the pits near the villages of Ovoshtnik and Cherganovo. There are granite pits near the villages of Kanchevo and Bouzovgrad. The granite is used for kerbs, paving stones, and others.
The Kazanlak valley is drained by the Tundzha river and its tributaries. The Tundzha takes its source in the highest part of the Balkan east of Mount Botev, flows across several valleys and plains – Kazanlak Valley, Sliven Valley, Yambol Field and Elhovo FIeld and empties into the Maritsa river. The total length of its Bulgarian section is 349.5 km (217.2 mi), and its drainage basin area is 7,834 km2 (3,025 sq mi). The river flows slowly in Kazanlak valley near the north slopes of Sredna Gora mountain. The average annual water quantity increases southwards.
At Koprinka Reservoir it is 9.5 cubic metres (2,100 imp gal) per second on average or about 300,000,000 cubic metres (6.6×1010 imp gal) per year; at the village of Knezha it is 31.14 cubic metres (6,850 imp gal) per second or 1,200,000,000 cubic metres (2.6×1011 imp gal) per year. But this water quantity is not equally distributed during the whole year. The maximum is in spring (April and May) due to the intensive snow melting and high rainfalls in spring. The underground waters of the considerable in range and flow rate alluvial cones play an important role in the drain regulation during summer season when the rainfall is minimum. Southwest of the village of Koprinka the river valley is deeply cut in the slope of Sredna Gora mountain and this narrowness was used for the Koprinka dam construction which permits the irrigation of the land round Kazanlak and Stara Zagora. Many tributaries feed the Tundzha river; those rising in the Balkan mountains are numerous and deeper.
The rivers Tazha, Leshnitsa, Eninska and Maglizhka and their deeply cut in the Balkan slopes valleys are of remarkable beauty. The Kran river rises in the village of Kran and collecting several spring flows through the western part of the town and gradually disappears in the terrace materials of the Tundzha river.
The Eninska river rises in the Balkan, collects the waters of many springs, flows through the eastern part of Kazanlak and empties into the Tundzha river south of the town. Both tributaries have deeply cut valleys in their upper courses. In the lower courses the terrain is not so inclined and the river beds are wider. The average annual water quantity of the Eninska river at the village of Enina is 0.75 cubic metres (160 imp gal) per second. The maximum water flow is in April and May, at 1.70 cubic metres (370 imp gal) and 1.49 cubic metres (330 imp gal) per second, respectively. The minimum is in September at 0.20 cubic metres (7.1 cu ft) per second. These tributaries (especially the Eninska river) are characterised by plenty of alluvial formations.
Many gullies run down the slopes of Tulbeto hill (located in the north-eastern part of the town) when heavy rain falls or snow melts and carry to the Eninska river heavy alluvial formations. Two or three km north of Kazanlak the rivers Eninska and Kranska are connected by a drain carrying off the water directed towards the town. South of the town there is another drain system carrying the disappearing in the alluvial cone waters from the rivers Eninska and Kranska towards the Tundzha river.
During the first decade after the liberation of Bulgaria, in the 1880s the population of Kazanlak numbered about 9,000. Since then it started growing decade by decade, mostly because of the migrants from the rural areas and the surrounding smaller towns, reaching its peak in 1985 exceeding 60,000. 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.
Kazanlak has a long, solid tradition in the area of culture and enlightenment. At the every beginning of the Revival, the populace of Kazanlak was already opening school and cultural reading centers – including the Pedagogical school of Kazanlak, which prepared teachers for the entire country. For many well-known Bulgarian artists and performers, this was the place where their physical and creative lives began. The cultural centre of Kazanlak is the Iskra chitalishte, founded in 1860. It contains a library, theatre, cinema, and museum. It was host to the first Bulgarian opera, Siromahkinya.
The Iskra Town History Museum is one of the first provincial town museums in Bulgaria. It was founded on 29 June 1901, by Peter Topuzov – a bright man of enterprise from Kazanlak and by decision of the leaders of Iskra Studious Club. More than 50 000 exhibits revealing the history of Kazanlak area from ancient times until nowadays have been kept at Iskra museum. The finds from Thracian town of Seuthopolis are displayed in three separate halls. Temporary exhibitions with valuable articles from this museum and loan-collections are arranged during the active tourist season.
The museum is a part of the Historical Museum "Iskra" in Kazanlak. In 1967 a small exposition was created, which was dedicated to rose-picking in Kazanlak and the region. In 1969 the exposition grew into an independent museum. Nowadays the Rose Museum stores more than 15 000 exponents related to rose-picking and rose-production in Bulgaria. The museum exposition includes original pictures and documents of the development of rose production, instruments for processing of the rose gardens, vessels for storing and exporting rose oil and rose water. Restorations of a rose warehouse and the first laboratory for examination of rose oil created in 1912 are made in the museum. One of the biggest attractions in the museum is a rose oil vessel which had been used for the last time in 1947 to this day a strong rose scent can still be smelled around it.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Kazanlak”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.