Vratsa

Vratsa or Vraca or Vratza (Bulgarian: ?????) is a city in northwestern Bulgaria, at the foothills of the Balkan mountains. It is the administrative center of the Vratsa region.

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The city of Vratsa is a commercial and crafts center and a railway junction. Vratsa has textile, metal processing, chemical, and ceramics industries. It was an administrative and garrison town under Ottoman Turkish yoke (15th?19th century). The municipal area of the city is inhabited by 80,040 people (2004).

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Vratsa is an ancient city, founded by the ancient Thracians /the original inhabitants of the territory between the Danube and the Aegian sea/ Vratsa was called by the Romans Valve ("door of a fortress") due to the narrow passage where was the main gate of the city fortress. Nowadays this passage is the symbol of Vratsa and it is present on the city's coat of arms.

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After the fall of Rome Vratsa became part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).

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In the end of the 6th century Vratsa was populated by the South Slavic tribes /known as Slavines) who came from Panonia and Dacia from the north, but Vratsa was still under Byzantine rule.

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In the 7th century the Proto-Bulgarians and the Slavs founded the Bulgarian state and the Slavic Vratsa was liberated from the Byzantines and annexed into it. Vratsa became an important strategic city because of its closeness to the south state border.The name of the city was changed from Valve to the Slavic Vratitsa (the meaning of this name is the same as Valve). Vratsa became famous for its goldsmith's and silversmith's production and trade, precise earthenware and military significance.

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In the 8th century the Bulgarian army captured Sofia, which decreased the importance of Vratsa because of the better strategic position of Sofia, its better economy and larger size. But Vratsa proved its glory by its heroic resistance against the Byzantine, Serbian and Hungarian invaders during the Middle Ages. Vratsa always stick?d rigidly to the central Bulgarian authority during the Middle Ages and never supported the separationism of some bulgarian feudals.

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(to be continued)

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Bulgarian: The word Bulgarian can mean:...

Bulgaria: The Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: ????????? ????????) is a republic in the southeast of Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the east, Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north along the river Danube. It is one of Euro...

Balkan mountains: The Balkan mountain range (Bulgarian and , Stara planina, "Old Mountain") is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the...