Portal:Bulgaria

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Blagoevgrad Province (Bulgarian: област Благоевград, oblast Blagoevgrad or Благоевградска област, Blagoevgradska oblast), also known in certain contexts as Pirin Macedonia (Bulgarian: Пиринска Македония, Pirinska Makedoniya), is a province (oblast) of southwestern Bulgaria. Part of the wider Macedonian region, it borders four other Bulgarian provinces, as well as Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. It has 14 municipalities with 12 towns.

The province has a territory of 6,449.5 km² and a population of 341,245. It is the third largest in Bulgaria after Burgas and Sofia Provinces and comprises 5.8% of the country's territory. Blagoevgrad Province includes the mountains, or parts of, Rila (highest point of the Balkans — Musala summit, 2925 m), Pirin (highest point — Vihren summit, 2914 m), the Rhodopes, Slavyanka, Belasitsa, Vlahina, Maleshevska, Ograzhden and Stargach. There are two major rivers — Struma River and Mesta River — with population concentrations along their valleys, which are also the main transport corridors.

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Credit: Evgeni Dinev

Shkorpilovtsi is a resort town on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Black Sea Coast beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km coast. The region is an important centre for tourism during the summer, drawing foreign and Bulgarian tourists alike.

News

• May 13: India's Anand defends chess world championship title against Bulgarian challenger Topalov
• October 19: Listening to you at last: EU plans to tap cell phones
• July 5: Rupert Grint, Harry Potter's "Ron Weasley", recovers from H1N1 swine flu virus
• July 5: Bulgarian officials in Grand Prix talks
• June 8: Europeans go to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament
• February 22: Bulgarian chess grandmaster attempts to break chess record
• January 7: Wikinews Shorts: January 7, 2009
• July 12: Six die as bus carrying Polish tourists crashes in Serbia

Did You Know?

• ...that 62% of the surface of the Pirin Mountains (peak pictured) is granite, and is therefore covered with mainly ancient metamorphic rock?
• ...that the Crusade of Varna required simultaneous attacks on the Muslim Ottoman Empire by Christian Hungary and the Muslim Karamanids, which did not occur?
• ...that the area on which Vrana Palace was constructed, just outside of Sofia, was initially purchased by Tsar Ferdinand I in 1898?
• ...that mining has caused significant ecologically damage to the Timok River recently, and also from heavy metal industry in other cities?

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