Belitsa
|
Belitsa Белица |
|
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Belitsa
|
|
| Coordinates: 41°57′00″N 23°34′00″E / 41.95°N 23.566667°ECoordinates: 41°57′00″N 23°34′00″E / 41.95°N 23.566667°E | |
| Country | Bulgaria |
| Province | Blagoevgrad |
| Municipality | Belitsa |
Belitsa (Bulgarian: Белица) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located in the Belitsa Municipality of the province of Blagoevgrad.
Belitsa is close to Razlog Municipality, Bansko Municipality, and Yakoruda Municipality. The municipality of Belinitsa is picturesquely situated in the northeastern part of the valley of Razlog and the Blagoevgrad regione, in the dale of the river Mesta, in between the southern slopes of eastern Rila and the northern slopes of the Beliyshko-Videnishki part of the southern Rhodopes.
It contains 12 settlements, and 8 of them are scattered in the mountainous area of the Rhodopes. The municipal center, Belitsa, is located in the southern part of the Rila mountains and is connected to the route Razlog-Velingrad (with international E79 and E80) but off to the side by 4 kilometers. This makes for easy transportation from the town to Sofia (172 kilometers away) and Blagoevgrad (72 kilometers away).
The area of Belitsa first fell into the hands of the Roman Empire. The Romans made many settlements larger in the Razlog valley and led Hellenized and Romanized colonists into them.
Belitsa is recorded for the first time in a record from the Tatarpazardzhiyska province (kaaza) in the Ottoman Empire in 1516 under the name Belitsa, together with Little Belitsa (Bulgarian: Малка Белица, Malka Belitsa).
In the 19th century, it was a Christian-Muslim village in the Nevropska kaaza of the Ottoman Empire. In "The Ethnography of the Vilayets Adrianopole, Manastir, and Salonica" in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1878 and statistics reflecting the male population from 1873, Belitsa (Bielitsa) is shown as a village with 303 households, 640 Bulgarian Christians and 250 Pomaks. In agreement with the statistics of Vasil Kanchov, during c. 1900, Belitsa (in old Bulgarian orthography Бѣлица) is a mixed Bulgarian-Christian and Bulgarian-Muslim village. 2700 Bulgarian Christians live in it, as well as 550 Pomaks and 50 Vlachs.
...
Wikipedia