Bobov Dol
Bobov Dol was first mentioned in an Ottoman tax register of 1576, although the area had been inhabited by the Thracians in antiquity and was part of the medieval Bulgarian Empire, as well as the Byzantine Empire. Although in the 1830s the geologist Ami Boué visited the region and studied the local coal deposits, it was not until after the Liberation of Bulgaria that extraction began, namely in 1891. On 30 September 1967, the village of Bobov Dol was proclaimed a town. The Bobov Dol Thermal Power Plant was built between 1973 and 1975 10 kilometres from the town, at the village of Golemo Selo. During the Socialist era, Bobov Dol attracted many workers as it experienced an economic and demographic boom, with groups of workers arriving from as far as Nicaragua in the 1980s.