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Smolyan (Bulgarian: Смолян) is a town and ski resort in the south of Bulgaria near the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the Smolyan Province. The town is built along the narrow valley of the Cherna ('black') and the Byala ('white') river in the central Rhodope Mountains. It is located at the foot of the mountain's highest peak Golyam Perelik (2191 m). Popular ski resorts of Pamporovo and Chepelare lie in the vicinity. As of June 2022 the town has a population of 30 689 inhabitants.
Name
The name of the town comes from the local Slavic tribe of the Smolyani, the name of whom is probably cognate to the Slavic word smola ("resin").[1]
History
Salih Aga Pashmakli Residence
According to archaeological evidence, the area around Smolyan was first settled in the 2nd-1st millennium BC. In the Middle Ages it acquired its name from the Slavic tribe, the Smolyani, who settled in the region in the 7th century. During the Middle Ages, it was ruled by the Part of the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires. For a while during the 14th century it came under the control of the Bulgarian feudal lord Momchil, alongside the whole Rhodope mountains, before eventually being subjugated by the Ottoman Empire. During the Ottoman period the town was renamed to "Paşmaklı". It remained under Ottoman rule for five centuries, a township of the Ottoman Sanjak of Gümülcine in the Adrianople Vilayet between 1867 and 1912. It remained a Muslim-majority town with a large Christian minority until 1912.
The area was liberated by the 21st Sredna Gora Regiment led by Vladimir Serafimov in 1912, during the First Balkan War. However, the town retained its Ottoman-era name "Paşmaklı" until 1934, when it was changed to "Smolyan" by official decree. The modern town of Smolyan was formed by the merger of three existing villages — Ustovo, Raykovo and Ezerovo — in 1960.
The population of Smolyan just after World War II was about 5,000.[2] 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 the beginning of the 1990s, exceeding 34,000.[3]
Smolyan
Year
1887
1910
1934
1946
1956
1965
1975
1985
1992
2001
2005
2009
2011
2021
Population
no data
no data
no data
5,406
7,472
17,448
28,492
31,539
34,086
33,153
31,988
31,718
30,642
26,167
Highest number 34,086 in 1992
Sources: National Statistical Institute,?? citypopulation.de,?? pop-stat.mashke.org,?? Bulgarian Academy of Sciences??
Ethnic linguistic and religious composition
According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows:[4][5]
