Garmen
| Garmen | |
|---|---|
 Garmen
|
|
| Coordinates: 41°36′N 23°49′E / 41.600°N 23.817°E | |
| Country |
 Bulgaria
|
|
Provinces (Oblast) |
Blagoevgrad |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | vacant |
| Elevation | 605 m (1,985 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 1,931 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Postal Code | 2960 |
| Area code(s) | 07523 |
Garmen (Bulgarian: Гърмен) is a village in Blagoevgrad Province in Bulgaria and is the seat of Garmen Municipality. It is located in southwestern Bulgaria in the Western Rhodope Mountains in the Chech region 75 kilometers southeast of Blagoevgrad and 127 kilometers southeast of Sofia.
In about 146 AD, after long battles between Roman troops and Thracians, the area around Gotse Delchev fell to Roman rule. In 106 the emperor Trajan built the city Nicopolis ad Nestum in honor of the defeat. This town was destroyed at the end of the 6th century by the Slavs and the tribe of the Smolyani settled here. The Slavs were farmers and herdsmen. They grew millet, wheat, flax, hemp and leguminous plants and they also bred birds, cattle, sheep and goats.
Garmen is mentioned several times in the Ottoman registers during the Ottoman rule and they also built a Turkish grange in the area where Nicopolis ad Nestum was located. Until the 19th century the municipality was mainly a farming area and a few men worked as builders in the interior of the country and in the Aegean region. The first schools and churches were built in the area during the Bulgarian renaissance. Garmen's church was named after St. George and was built in 1898 over the foundations of an older church. The church is an artistic monument of culture of national significance.
During the Russo-Turkish war (1877–1878) and during the Balkan wars (1912–1913) the population in the municipality joined volunteer troops to fight. In 1901 a volunteer "militia" was formed by Stoyko Pashkulev. The area was liberated from the Ottoman rule in 1912.
The municipality has a Mediterranean climate tempered by the high altitude. It has one of the warmest climates in the country because it is between two climate zones-temperate continental and transitional Mediterranean. On an average year the precipitation is 620–780 mm/m² which is distributed relatively evenly between all four seasons. The air humidity ranges from 60% to 75% throughout the year. Snow cover is usually only for 70–100 days per year.
One GP doctor is working in Garmen and the nearest hospital is in Gotse Delchev.
...
Wikipedia