Harmanli

Harmanli
Harmanli
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Harmanli Location of Harmanli
	Coordinates: 41°56′N 25°54′E / 41.933°N 25.900°E
Country	Bulgaria
Province; (Oblast)	Haskovo
Government
• Mayor	Mihail Liskov
Elevation	60 m (200 ft)
Population (December 2009)
• Total	18,557
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal Code	6450
Area code(s)	0373

For the spelling with the dotless i, see Harmanlı.

Harmanli (Bulgarian: Харманли, Turkish: Harmanlı) is a town in Haskovo Province, South-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Harmanli Municipality. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 18,557 inhabitants.^[1]

Harmanli came into being in about 1510 along the road that connects Central Europe and Anatolia.

Geography[edit]

Its territory spreads over some parts of the Upper Thracian Lowlands between the oblique south slopes of the Sredna Gora and precipitous north slopes of the Rhodope Mountains. The south boundary of the Thracian lowlands is outlined by the north Rhodope foot, along which it leans close on the north Rhodopes, between the lower end of the Momina Klisura defile (at 300 m elevation) and the beginning of the Harmanli defile (at 80 m elevation).

The Maritsa River flows near the city. The climate of the area is temperate continental, which determines the variety of the vegetative types, some of which pertain to the evergreen groups (south of Harmanli). The soils are mainly maroon and woody. It is located 270 km from the capital Sofia

History[edit]

The first historical records of it date back to 1530,^{[citation needed]} with the memoirs of Benedit Kuripešič, who would sojourn there as an interpreter in his mission. Skilful masters built a solid caravansaray on the right bank of the Harmanli river (then Oludere). In order to facilitate travelers and tradesmen, a vaulted bridge was built in 1585 by the order of the Ottoman administrator Siviush Pasha. The marble inscription on the bridge reads as follows: "The world is a bridge, across which the way of the king and the poor man passes." The hunchbacked bridge has been saved almost intact to this day.

Culture[edit]

The location of the town along the roadway gives reason to a writer Gencho Stoev to say that: "Harmanli does not need to travel because the world goes through it".^{[citation needed]} A historic fountain was built in the place called White-legged Girl's Spring (Turkish: Ak baldır çeşmesi), half an hour way from the bridge. The legend about Guergana was celebrated in a poem by Petko Slaveikov. Another legend revolves about the story of boyar Valkashin or Vukasin, father of the legendary Krali Marko, who was killed near this spring fighting the Ottoman sultan Murad.

A cultural centre (chitalishte) in Harmanli.

Tourist attractions[edit]

The municipality area has a number of waterfalls in the areas of Kiumiurluka and Kuru Dere and the protected area of Defileto, as well as the historic spots the Karakoliuvata Kashta cave, Forest Hades and Haidushkata Dupka a small cave.

Today[edit]

Two transcontinental corridors intersect the municipality. The first one is from West and Central Europe, through Sofia - Harmanli - Svilengrad and Istanbul (Е-80 or І-8), and the second one is from North Europe through Rousse - Haskovo - Harmanli and Mediterranean, on which basis corridor 9 will be developed in the future.