Which country did Sopot, Plovdiv Province belong to from Jul 1878 to Nov 1991?
Sopot , Plovdiv Province Sopot ( ) is a Bulgarian town situated in the fertile sub-Balkan mountain valley of Karlovo ( which is the western part of the famous Rose Valley ) , immediately below the steep southern slopes of the Troyan Balkan Mountain ( Central Stara Planina ) . Sopot is part of Plovdiv Province and is the administrative centre of a municipality . Geography . It lies 2 km west of Karlovo , 136 km east of Sofia , 63 km north of Plovdiv and 61 km south of Troyan . It is the birthplace of arguably the best known and most renowned Bulgarian novelist , Ivan Vazov . Sopot is also a machine building centre . History . According to Konstantin Jireček , the toponym is of Proto-Slavic origin , as indicated by the large number of identical placenames all around the Slavic world . There is information about the locality dating back to the Ottoman rule . During the Bulgarian National Revival ( 18th and 19th centuries ) it was called Golden Sopot because of its flourishing development in the crafts and trade . The citizens of Sopot manufactured homespun , braids , fur and leather of high quality and traded predominantly round the Ottoman Empire . During the struggle for liberation in 1877 the town was largely destroyed by fire and its population was slaughtered or expelled . The town was named Vazovgrad between 1950 and 1965 after which it obtained its present name again . The pioneering Bulgarian educator Nedelya Petkova ( 1826–1894 ) began her career a student at the monastery school of the Holy presentation of the Blessed Virgin convent in Sopot . Population . The population is almost exclusively Christian , mostly Eastern Orthodox but with some Evangelical and Roman Catholic families . According to the 2011 census , 7,973 out of 8,754 inhabitants declared their ethnicity . Around 96.2% of those , or 7,669 people , are ethnic Bulgarians . There are 145 Roma people ( 1.8% ) and 20 ethnic Turks ( 0.3% ) living in the town of Sopot . Religion . The population of Sopot professes mostly Eastern Orthodox Christianity . There are several families Roman Catholics and evangelicals . No Muslims . - Sopot monastery St . Spas or Sopot monastery for men Vaznesenie Gospodne ( Ascension Day ) ( in its present form since 1879 ) , in which on 7 December 1858 Vasil Levski became a monk . – The exact date of the occurrence of the monastery is not known . It is believed that was founded in the 13th century . Most likely St . Spas is the successor of the previous monastery in the Sopot area – St . Trinity , extinct about the 11th or 12th century . The St . Spas monastery was royal- i.e . it was endowed with rights and property by Smilets of Bulgaria himself . These certificates were kept in the monastery until 1870 . After that they were transmitted to Nayden Gerov for publishing . During the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria the church was burned and destroyed many times . After its restoration in 1870 it was painted by the artist George Danchev , a close friend of Vasil Levski . During the Russo-Turkish War ( 1877–78 ) , the church was destroyed again as only the altar survived , but the eyes of the saints were gouged by the bayonets of the Turks . The Church and the fountain of the monastery were restored again in 1879 by Abbot Raphail , whose grave is now behind the altar . By the south wall the church can be seen the great bell , cast in Craiova in 1873 and donated to the monastery by Sopot citizens living in Romania . - Nunnery Vavedenie Bogorodichno ( Blessed Virgin ) ,dating from 1665 – one of the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria of the Bulgarian Tourist Union . – The monastery church Blessed Virgin was built in the 15th century on the site of an old chapel . The monastery itself was founded in 1665 when living quarters were built around the temple . In the southern cell , on the second floor of the monastery , a primary school was housed . On the first floor of the monastery was located the cell of the Abbess – Hristina . Her cell was the entrance to Vasil Levskis hideout . In 1877 the monastery and the town were burnt down and the Abbess was brutally slaughtered by the Turks . From the monastery survived the temple , the hiding place of Vasil Levski , the fountain ( 1852 ) , part of the cells and the old vine , which is considered to be one of the oldest in Bulgaria and is over 350 years old . The monastery was rebuilt after the Liberation of Bulgaria . Education . - General Vladimir Zaimov`s high school ( est . 1967 ) - Ivan Vazov`s high school - Nedelya Petkova`s school Culture center Ivan Vazov . The culture center is established in 1871 . Since 1944 became a culture institute . The library had more than 14500 books . In 1970 were created a monument of Ivan Vazov . Attractions . - House-Museum of Ivan Vazov . Ivan Vazov was born on 9 July 1850 in Sopot in the old house of his kind built in the 18th century by his grandfather . It was burned in July 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War ( 1877–78 ) . In 1920 , the eve of the anniversary celebrations to commemorate the 70th anniversary and 50 years of literary activity of Vazov , among the poets friends in Sofia started the idea to restore his native home . The construction of the house began in 1931 . The interior was designed under the leadership of Stefan Kostov – the Director of the Ethnographic Museum in Sofia . It was based on information from the Vazov brothers and Vala-Vazova Fetvadzhieva . On 6 June 1935 the house was officially opened as a museum . In 1964 , the house-museum Ivan Vazov in Sopot was declared a cultural monument with national importance . On the occasion of 120th birth anniversary of the poet , on 8 July 1970 opened the exposure to the life and creative time in his home , built next to the house building . The rich fund , which has the house-museum Ivan Vazov , recalls the most important periods in the life of the writer : his childhood in Sopot , where he completed his education , his work as assistant teacher in Kalofer with Botyo Petkov and teaching in the Diocese school in Plovdiv with Yoakim Gruev . The exhibited manuscripts present his rich literary works created in 1876–1877 , when he was a refugee in Romania and published his first poetry works . - Sopot Craft’s center Esnaf ( founded in 2005 ) The ethnographic and craft center Sopots Esnaf is located in two Bulgarian Renaissance houses – Budinata House and House Zagubanski in the center of the city , where the descendants of the old masters demonstrate and share their experience . It is managed by the Ivan Vazov museum and the Association of the Sopots masters and connoisseurs of arts and crafts . Visitors can review 4 thematic ethnographic collections , and observe the work of the local artisans – engraving , incrustation , weaving and more . Particularly original is the arrangement the living room in the urban style from the late 19th century . In the center of the esnaf there is a cozy shop for traditional crafts from the Sopot School . On the second floor there is an equipped workshop for young people who are interested to learn old crafts . Interest provokes the arrangement of a typical Sopot living room , replicating the style and lifestyle of the late 19th and early 20th century . Visitors can observe craftsmen at work and to learn about customs and traditions of Sopot . - Grandpa Stoyanova water mill Honour . Sopot Ice Piedmont on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica is named after Sopot . Economy . - VAZOVSKI MASHINOSTROITELNI ZAVODI – ( On English:Vazov mashice factory ) – was established in 1940 as a military factory . In the first years the factory start to produce:hand grenades , howitzer rounds , fuzes and others . External links . - Sopot site