Uzundzhovo

Uzundzhovo (Bulgarian: Узунджово) is a village in southeastern Bulgaria, part of Haskovo municipality, Haskovo Province. As of 2008, it has a population of 1,727 and the mayor is Vancho Vanchev. The village lies in the agricultural Upper Thracian Plain (Northern Thrace), east of Haskovo, south of Dimitrovgrad and west of Simeonovgrad and Harmanli. During Ottoman rule, the village was known as Uzunca ova ("long meadow"), a direct translation of the area's former Byzantine Greek appellation, Makri livada. The village's current name is derived from the Ottoman Turkish name and modified with the Slavic placename suffix -ovo. An architectural reminder of the village's Ottoman history can also be seen, as the local Church of the Assumption was built originally as a mosque. Uzundzhovo hosts the Bulgarian Air Force's 21st Fighter and Bomber Airbase, shut down in 1998.

In Ottoman times, Uzundzhovo was famous as the site of the international Uzundzhovo Fair (Узунджовски панаир, Uzundzhovski panair). According to the German historian Hammer, the fair was established by Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha in 1593. It was organized regularly from the early 18th century to 1876 and gathered up to 50,000 people for around 40 days. The site was chosen because of Uzundzhovo's location on the trade route from Plovdiv to Edirne, between the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Danube. The 69th issue of the Istanbul-based Bulgarian newspaper Tsarigradski vestnik of 15 October 1849 describes the fair as follows:

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