Dobarsko

Dobarsko (Bulgarian: Добърско [ˈdɔbərsku]) is a village in southwestern Bulgaria, part of Razlog Municipality, Blagoevgrad Province. It is set at 1,070 m above sea level on the southern slopes of Rila with the westernmost Rhodope Mountains to the east and Pirin to the south near the valley of the Mesta River. Dobarsko is 80 km from Blagoevgrad and 17 km from the winter resort Bansko. As of September 2005^[update] the village has a population of 672 and about 200 houses, the mayor being Nikola Naydenov.

According to the legend, Dobarsko was founded by soldiers from Bulgarian tsar Samuil's blinded army after the Battle of Belasitsa in 1014, who arrived in the area en route to the Rila Monastery and discovered a holy spring that allegedly cured them. Dobarsko is first mentioned in Tsar Ivan Shishman's donor's charter from the Rila Monastery in 1378.

During the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria Dobarsko established itself as the most important and richest village in the Razlog Valley. Many of the locals were merchants who bought cotton from Northern Greece and sold it in Central Europe and grazed large herds of cattle in the mountains and the plains around Drama and Serres. However, Dobarsko began to lose its former importance in the late 18th century, as Bansko rose to become the centre of the region.

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